Craig Baird has continued his recent run of success by taking out an action packed Race 3 of the City Index Carrera Cup at Mount Panormam this morning.
Regarded as the most successful Porsche driver in the world, Baird traded lap record’s with impressive wildcard entry Jeroen Bleekemolen over the course of the seven lap race.
With the sun shining down on the circuit Baird smashed Alex Davison’s previous lap record by 0.8189s on his way to a clean sweep of the round.
Bleekemolen made a flying start from the front row of the grid but was unable to get past Baird, who led the field into Hell Corner and up the mountain.
From this point Baird was never headed as he completed a lights-to-flag victory over Bleekemolen and Alex Davison.
On Lap 7 officials made the call to finish the Race 2 Laps short of full race distance when Shane Smollen slammed into the wall at The Esses.
Nick Foster battled hard with Steven Richards to finish fourth ahead of the Ford Performance Racing co-driver.
Jonny Reid, Daniel Gaunt, Anthony Pederson, Andre Heimgartner and James Koundoris rounded out the top 10.
Former AFL player Troy Wilson recovered from a spin at The Dipper to finish in 14th position.
On the opening lap Elite class runner Max Twigg was relegated to last place after being helped of the circuit by Heimgartner at The Chase.
Twigg recovered to finish 3rd in class behind James Koundoris and Tony Bates.
Koundoris was happy to take home the elite class round victory after being out of a Carrera Cup car while on holiday for the last four months.
“It was nice to be back in the car after missing the Townsville round but my times weren’t as fast as they were a few years ago, so I must be getting old.” he said.
The City Index Carrera Cup will be back for the penultimate round of the championship on the Gold Coast in two weeks time.
