Jaxon Evans claimed the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy by winning the 150th race of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge at Queensland Raceway.
Evans produced a measured drive to claim a comfortable win over his title rival Hamish Hardeman in a 40 lap race at the fifth round of the Shannons Nationals.
The Queenslander converted a pole position into the lead before opening up a healthy four second gap over Sonic Motor Racing’s Hardeman, who was tied on points with Evans heading into the round.
However, his lead was wiped out by the introduction of the Safety Car 10 laps from the end.
Evans made no mistakes at the restart allowing him to take the chequered flag by 2.3s from Hardeman.
“It’s really special to win the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy. Hamish (Hardeman) and I were level on points heading into the weekend, so it was great to get the win and come away with the trophy,” said Evans.
“The longer races are good fun; it’s a good test to see how consistent and level-headed you can remain instead of just having one lap speed.”
Tim Miles secured the final place on the podium and the Elite Class victory in the process.
Jim Campbell, Sam Shahin and Brian Finn completed the top six.
The series returns for two 12 laps races on Sunday.
Australian Formula 3 Premier Series
Toowoomba racer Cameron Shields secured his maiden Australian Formula 3 victory as title rivals Chris Anthony and Tim Macrow collided on the opening lap.
The 15-year-old had earlier stormed to pole position which he converted into an early race lead.
However, drama struck behind when Anthony and Macrow made contact at Turn 2.
Anthony was forced into the gravel trap while Macrow completed a 360 degree spin.
Macrow failed to restart, whilst a broken front wishbone on Anthony’s McDonald’s Gilmour Racing Dallara was hastily patched back together in a bid to return to the track, but the New South Wales driver failed to reach the finish.
The clash between the title rivals helped Shields power on to take a comfortable maiden win from Roland Legge, while Chris Gilmour finished third on his F3 return.
“I got a really good start and got a good gap. The first thing I did was look in my mirror and saw they weren’t there. I had a bit of a giggle to myself and thought that was very nice,” said Shields.
“I maintained the lead and held out Roland for the rest of the race. With a couple of laps to go I was just trying to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes, otherwise I knew Roland would take any chance he could. I just wanted to bring the car home in one piece.”
A further two races will complete the round on Sunday.
Kerrick Sports Sedans
Supercars co-driver Jack Perkins stormed to the top step of the podium in the opening Kerrick Sports Sedans heat.
The Holden Racing Team driver blitzed the opposition from pole to take the chequered flag by 23 seconds from reigning series winner Tony Ricciardello.
While Perkins (Audi A4) enjoyed a trouble-free run to the flag, Ricciardello was forced to fight his way through the field after running off the track in the early laps.
Ricciardello (Alfa Romeo GTV) and returning six-time Sports Sedans champion Kerry Baily (Aston Martin) were involved in a thrilling dice but it was the former who took second spot by 0.7s.
The Sports Sedans will be back in action for two more races on Sunday.
Australian Formula Ford Series
Leanne Tander has inherited victory in the opening Australian Formula Ford Series encounter after on the road winner Will Brown was handed a post race penalty.
Starting from pole position, Brown took crossed the line in first but was later issued with a 30-second penalty for a Safety Car restart infringement.
As a result, the victory was awarded to Tander, who climbed from sixth on the grid to finish the race in second spot.
Andrew Kahl was promoted to second, while Ryan Pike completed the podium.
Rookie racer Jordan Boys was fourth, ahead of Adrian Lazzaro, Aaron Cameron, Harrision Jones and Hunter McElrea.
The Australian Formula Ford Series will feature another two races on Sunday.
Australian Production Car Series
Beric Lynton and Tim Leahy recorded a convincing win in the 300km Fight in the Night Australian Production Car Series endurance.
The #23 Bruce Lynton Prestige Automotive BMW1M crossed the finish line with an eight second margin over the Daniel Gaunt/Mark Griffith Mitsubishi Evo X.
Gaunt’s second place came after an epic battle with third-placed Aaron Seton (co-driving with Tony Alford in the Donut King BMW1M) and Paul Morris in the #62 Roadchill Freight Express BMW M135i.
The results for Griffith and Morris came after huge lap one efforts from the pair, with them passing 11 and 14 cars respectively after starting at the rear of the grid.
Morris was expected to challenge for the outright and Class A victory after co-driver Luke Searle led for a large chunk of the race before settling for fourth outright and in Class.
After leading the first half of the race, Iain and Grant Sherrin finished fifth, winning Class B in the process.
The Class C victory went to the #5 Falcon Fire BMW of Doug Westwood and Daniel Sugden.
Australian Sports Racers
Roger I’Anson produced a commanding drive to win the opening Australian Sports Racers heat of the weekend.
After a dominant performance in qualifying, I’Anson went on to convert his pole position into a comfortable win by 11.3s from Josh Townsend’s Formula 1000 single seater.
The West sportscar of Adam Cranston finished a distant third ahead of the Radical of John Morriss and John-Paul Drake (West).
South Australia’s Mark Laucke came home ninth in his spare West chassis after escaping a frightening fiery incident in practice on Friday.
The Sports Racers are back in action for two 12 lap races on Sunday.
Australian GT Trophy Series
Jake Camilleri pipped Jack Smith to pole position in qualifying for the Australian GT Trophy Series.
The MARC Cars Australia driver posted an impressive 1:11.54s effort early in the 30 minute session which proved unbeatable.
Smith came close but the fellow MARC Mazda V8 racer fell 0.07s shy of Camilleri.
The track seemed to suit the MARC Cars entrants with four filling the top five places on the grid.
The #96 Marc Ford Focus of Morgan Haber and Rob Thomson claimed third ahead of Travers Benyon (Audi R8 GT3) and Keith Kassulke (MARC Cars Ford Focus).
The Australian GT Trophy Series will contest two 50 minute races on Sunday, with the first scheduled for 1035 local time.
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