Due to the growing COVID-19 infection rate in Europe, Porsche Motorsport has been forced to cancel this year’s Porsche Motorsport Shootout event, which was originally scheduled to take place from the 01 to 04 December. The decision was taken to ensure both the safety of the young drivers and staff. As a result, no 2021 Porsche Junior will be crowned globally for the first time in the Shootout’s history.
Domestically, the Coronavirus pandemic also impacted the shortened 2020 Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia season. Which meant no Australian Junior representative would have been eligible to attend the 2020 Shootout, as only four of the 24 scheduled races took place due to local travel restrictions.
On the news of the cancellation, Porsche Cars Australia’s Head of Motorsport, Troy Bundy, said “While the news is disappointing, it’s clear the outbreak is getting worse in Europe making it unsafe for the drivers and Porsche Motorsport team to conduct the event. Several of the Carrera Cup markets, like ourselves, couldn’t nominate anyone this year as they didn’t complete enough of their season or in some cases, didn’t start their season at all.”
The Porsche Junior Programme and Shootout remain a crucial part of the Porsche Motorsport Programme for 2021 and into the future. Planning for the Australian 2021 Junior Programme is well underway and promises to again set the benchmark for developing young driver talent within Australia.
The 2019 Junior Champion, Jordan Love, won last year’s Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Championship and went onto to win the Australia Junior Shootout nomination to compete against Carrera Cup Champions from the leading one-make Porsche championships around the world in three-day driving evaluation at the Portimao circuit.
This season, Love joined 2019 Porsche Junior Shootout winner, Jaxon Evans, on the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup grid, the premier support race for FIA Formula One World Championship. Evans would go onto win the opening Supercup round in Spielberg, Austria and more recently add the Porsche Carrera Cup France title to his resume.
Other drivers that have progressed up the Porsche Motorsport pyramid in recent years via the Australian Junior Programme include the likes of Matt Campbell, Nick Foster, Andre Heimgartner and Dylan O’Keeffe, who have all gone on to succeed at the highest levels of the sport both locally and internationally.
