Shae Davies has taken victory in the second S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship race at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in fading light.
The Versa Motorsport driver racked up his first race win in the championship, taking the lead on Lap 1 before a Safety Car and time certainty would ultimately bring proceedings to an early end.
In what was a top 12 reverse grid race, Conor Somers got the holeshot into Turn 1 from pole position over Davies.
Somers’ spell at the head of the field was brief. Davies soon got by as did Nippy’s-backed Blake Purdie who passed him late on Lap 1.
Somers soon found himself facing the wrong way after the nose of Team BRM driver Kaleb Ngatoa clipped the rear of the #71 entry.
Super2 Series regular Matt Chahda found himself in strife too, suddenly slowing out of the second-to-last corner.
At the end of Lap 1, it was Davies, who led Purdie, Cooper Webster, Ngatoa, Tim Macrow, Ben Bargwanna, Nathan Herne, James Golding, Zane Goddard, and Aaron Cameron.
The drama continued on Lap 2 when James Davison and Goddard got together at the final turn.
Davison’s car disappeared in a cloud of smoke, the #4 coming to a halt adjacent to the tyre wall.
With nowhere to go, Goddard in the #3 stopped and stalled.
With the two Team BRM drivers parked up, the Safety Car was drawn on Lap 3.
Davison was eventually able to get going before the field lapped him, though Goddard wasn’t so fortunate and remained idle at the final corner and wouldn’t restart the race.
Ultimately, the race as a whole wouldn’t restart as the chequered flag flew on Lap 5.
All told, Davies was the winner from Purdie and Webster. Ngatoa was fourth, Macrow fifth and the top 10 completed by Herne, Golding, Cameron, Bargwanna, and Joey Mawson.
The weekend’s final race gets underway tomorrow at 10:25 local time/AEST.
