{"id":457377,"date":"2026-02-04T07:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/457377\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T07:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:43:15","slug":"motorsport-news-sprint-challenge-champ-secures-carrera-cup-graduation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/457377\/","title":{"rendered":"Motorsport news: Sprint Challenge champ secures Carrera Cup graduation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Jake-Santalucia-1.jpg\" alt=\"Sprint Challenge champ secures Carrera Cup graduation\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old Victorian joins a long line of Sprint Challenge champions to make the move into Carrera Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Santalucia claimed the Sprint Challenge title with seven race wins on the season, taking the honours by 40 points.<\/p>\n<p>He became the second youngest one-make Porsche champion in Australian history in the process, before making a one-off start in the Carrera Cup season finale at Adelaide.<\/p>\n<p>Santalucia\u2019s move makes him the sixth of the last seven Sprint Challenge champions to make the step up to Carrera Cup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting to be stepping up to Porsche Equity-One Carrera Cup Australia with Wall Racing,\u201d Santalucia said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to continue my Porsche journey that we started two years ago and be able to step into the \u2018main game\u2019 this year is a great opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBefore I even get behind the wheel I can feel all the experience and the approach Wall Racing have so it\u2019s great to work with David Wall, David Fyfe and the team in Carrera Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Santalucia\u2019s signing with Wall Racing returns the title-winning squad to the series full time.<\/p>\n<p>The Sydney-based team last won the title with team owner David Wall behind the wheel in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to welcome Jake to the team,\u201d Wall Racing team owner, David Wall, said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s proven in two years of Sprint Challenge that he\u2019s got what it takes and his Carrera Cup debut in Adelaide was just as impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPart of our goals in returning Wall Racing to Carrera Cup on a full time basis has been to find a junior driver who we can support and work with over the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wall Racing and Santalucia will test for the first time at Sydney Motorsport Park ahead of the opening round of the season at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix from March 5-8.<\/p>\n<p><a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/285241\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/285241.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 18-year-old Victorian joins a long line of Sprint Challenge champions to make the move into Carrera Cup.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,235570,235571,806,805,803,804,30222,85,235572],"class_list":{"0":"post-457377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-carrera-cup","11":"tag-jake-santalucia","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-porsche","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-wall-racing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}