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Marco Giltrap led home Team Porsche New Zealand/Earl Bamber Motorsport teammate Zak Stichbury for a New Zealand one-two in Race 2 of the Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge Australia at Symmons Plains.
Sonic Racing’s Harrison Goodman was a close third ahead of Ronan Murphy, also out of the Sonic stable.
Giltrap won the first race earlier in the day, but he and his front-row partner Murphy were half off the track at Turn 2 after the start.
Their slight miscues allowed Stichbury to sneak through to lead from Giltrap.
Murphy fared worse as he lost spots to Grove Racing’s Oscar Targett, Goodman and the first of the Pro-Am drivers Sam Shahin.
Meanwhile the fancied runners such as Aron Shields, Lachlan Bloxsom and Marcos Flack would have to work their way through from the back of the grid.
Stichbury continued to lead narrowly until Lap 17 of the 24 when Giltrap manoeuvred himself ahead at Turn 6.
Goodman progressed to third midway through the race and Murphy also relegated the 17-year-old Targett in his debut weekend in Porsches.
Next was Tom Taplin, who was able to get past Shahin towards the end.
The latter was able to hold off other Pros, like McElrea Racing’s Caleb Sumich who started 19th, Bloxsom, Shields and Flack who undid some of his good work with a spin at Turn 6 on Lap 22.
Second in Pro-Am and twelfth outright was Brett Boulton who finished ahead of Pro driver Hamish Fitzsimmons.
Tom McLennan was next after he recovered from an early Turn 6 pirouette when he attempted a pass on Murphy.
Class B’s Brad Carr had another outstanding race in the older model, with a 15th place outright finish.
He came in ahead of Pro-Am drivers Richard Cowen, Matt Slavin, Andrew Goldie, David Greig, Eric Constantinidis, Tim Wolfe and Phil Morriss in Class B.
