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The VAILO Adelaide 500 featured the first races for the large support program of support categories.
PORSCHE CARRERA CUP
Dale Wood endured 23 laps of near unrelenting pressure to win the opening race in Round 8 of the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship.
The Earl Bamber Motorsport driver edged out pole sitter Callum Hedge and withstood every challenge from his teammate for the first half of the race. Then TekworkX Motorsport’s Max Vidau had several attempts to get by.
Wood led home Hedge who took some points out of championship leader McElrea Racing’s Jackson Walls and trails by 14. Walls limited the points loss by finishing a close third after he started eighth. He was able to take advantage of incidents that occurred ahead of him.
Alex Davison came through to fourth with Ryder Quinn next ahead of Vidau who spun when challenging for the lead. Dylan O’Keeffe was ahead of the pair before a 15s penalty for contact that turned Bayley Hall around who in turn was penalised for a clash with Fabian Coulthard.
The SP Tools Pro-Am result came down to the final lap when Dean Cook and Sam Shahin clashed while battling for the lead. Cook recovered first while Adrian Flack slipped past Shahin to take second.
GT WORLD CHALLENGE
The points have closed between the top three of Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS after Yassar Shahin and Matt Campbell won Race 1 at the final round.
Shahin started on pole position and other than the scheduled pitstops, he and Campbell took their Porsche 911 GT3R to a 1.5s victory over championship leader Liam Talbot and his codriver Chris Mies in their Audi R8 LMS Evo 2. Third across the line over 30s in arrears were Geoff Emery and Max Hofer (Audi).
Although still third in the points behind Emery, Shahin has reduced the margin by seven points in the title fight. Meanwhile Brad Schumacher was able to extend his AM points lead when he finished fourth. His nearest rivals in the series, fellow Audi drivers Matt Stoupas/Paul Stokell were next.
Renee Gracie (Audi) ensued in her first outing in the AM class, having already secured the Trophy class. Mike Baily and Brett Hobson (Mercedes AMG) were seventh in front of Michael Sheargold/Garth Walden (Mercedes), Marc Cini (Audi) and James and Theo Koundouris (Mercedes).
Trophy honours in the race went with Marcos Flack (Porsche 991.2 Cup Car) despite a 30s penalty for pit entry, and John Goodacre (MARC GT) won the Invitation class.
Incidents in the race started with Paul Lucchitti (Audi) and Tom McLennan (Porsche) who had contact at Turn 9 which also caught out Koundouris. At the same corner Michael Sheargold (Mercedes) and Geoff Taunton (MARC II) clashed before Christos Batzios also had a heavy clash with the MARC car.
TOURING CAR MASTERS
Race 1 of the final round of the Gulf Western Oil Touring Car Masters was won by Joel Heinrich in the Whiteline Racing #95 Chev Camaro. He won ahead of Ryan Hansford (Holden Torana) while Steve Johnson (Ford Mustang) was able to hold off the challenge from Andrew Fisher (Torana) by 0.12s.
Hansford had forged through to lead the 10-lap race and had a small advantage over Heinrich until the final lap at Turn 9 where he spun. He was able to recover quickly to hang onto second place.
Behind the tussle for third, John Bowe (Torana) was fifth in front of Adam Garwood (Holden Commodore), Marcus Zukanovic (Ford Falcon XD), Cameron Tilley (Valiant Pacer), Jim Pollicina (Torana) and Tony Karanfilovski (Mustang).
In the earlier Trophy race which finished behind the Safety Car, Hansford was the winner over Fisher, Tilley, Heinrich, Bowe, Garwood, Johnson and Pollicina. The race was initially led by Danny Buzadzic who was sitting third when he crashed his Torana at Turn 3. Zukanovic and Karanfilovski were both non-finishers due to steering damage after they had contact at Turn 14 on the first lap.
S5000
From the outside of the front row Aaron Cameon grabbed the lead off his Garry Rogers Motorsport teammate Jordan Boys for an all the way win in the first race of the final round of the S5000 Australian Drivers Championship.
Third place went to Versa Motorsport’s Blake Purdie who was able to hold off Ben Bargwanna. Kiwi Kaleb Ngatoa finished fifth for Team BRM while Versa’s Cooper Webster elevated himself for the back of the grid to seventh.
Qualifying earlier went lap for lap with different drivers on top. Ultimately it was Cameron who won out over Boys. Purdie was third quickest and Bargwanna was able to pull a fast time at the end to get fourth. Nathan Herne who was fastest several times, had two spins at Turn 14 to finish fifth in front of Carroll, Ngatoa, William, Amadio and Rosser. Webster only did two laps and was in the pits for the remainder of the session.
V8 SUPERUTES
There were two races in the non-championship round of Tyrepower V8 SuperUtes which were won by Aaron Bory and David Sieders respectively. Borg (Isuzu D-MAX) assumed the lead immediately as pole sitter Reuben Goodall stalled his Mazda BT-50 at the start.
A close second was Adam Marjoram (Mitsubishi Triton) with Cody Brewczynski (Toyota Hilux) next in front of Adrian Cottrell (Holden Colorado), Craig Woods (Hilux) and David Sieders (Mazda) who recovered from a spin when third on Lap 3.
Sieders atoned in the second race with an all-the-way victory. Woods grabbed second after the start and was able to pull a gap that negated a 5s penalty. Third was Marjoram from Borg and Ben Walsh (Hilux). The later was also pinged 5s which dropped him a spot to Brewczynski.
