James Golding has drawn first blood in S5000’s maiden race at Mount Panorama, leading a Garry Rogers Motorsport podium trifecta in the opening Shannons Tasman Series heat of the week.
Initially, it was Golding who got the holeshot from the clean side of the front row leaving pole-sitter Aaron Cameron to fight Nathan Herne.
Behind them, chaos unfolded as Tim Macrow came across the nose of John Martin and made contact with the AGI Sport driver.
Contact between them bent the right front corner of Martin’s car while Macrow spun and nosed into the outside wall.
Macrow would damage his front wing and crawl his way back to the pit lane where he would retire.
Martin, meanwhile, pulled off the road up Mountain Straight.
As the cars piled towards Griffins Bend, Herne got his nose ahead on the run up to the corner but Cameron prevailed.
Golding, Cameron, and Herne soon skipped away, leaving Roberto Mehri and Joey Mawson in their wake.
The Garry Rogers Motorsport trio were locked together at the end of Lap 1, Cameron threatening to usurp Golding.
Under pressure from behind, Golding locked up on the run up to Griffins Bend on Lap 3.
Later that lap, Herne got a run on Cameron down Conrod Straight and swept around the outside at the right-hander on entry to The Chase.
Having dropped to third, Cameron lost touch with the leading pair as the race hit halfway. Meanwhile, Merhi and Mawson battled amongst themselves.
Further afield, Luis Leeds in sixth led a three-car battle with Jordan Boys and Blake Purdie in tow.
Come Lap 7, Boys got a run on Leeds, the pair running side-by-side into The Chase. Ultimately, Boys would prevail.
Leeds fell to seventh but soon found himself out of the running entirely when he locked up into Griffins Bend and nosed into the tyre wall, narrowly missing Boys.
The Safety Car was subsequently brought out and the race eventually called under yellow.
In the end, Golding would greet the chequered flag first with team-mates Herne and Cameron completing the podium.
The second of four Shannons S5000 Tasman Series races will start at 10:05 local time/AEDT tomorrow.
Results: Race 1, Shannons S5000 Tasman Series
| Pos | Num | Driver | Team | Diff |
| 1 | 31 | James Golding | GRM | |
| 2 | 29 | Nathan Herne | GRM | +0.2838 |
| 3 | 18 | Aaron Cameron | GRM | +0.5228 |
| 4 | 98 | Roberto Merhi | Team BRM | +1.2049 |
| 5 | 1 | Joey Mawson | Team BRM | +2.6303 |
| 6 | 88 | Jordan Boys | 88 Racing | +3.3532 |
| 7 | 48 | Blake Purdie | 88 Racing | +4.1132 |
| 8 | 28 | Yoshiaki Katayama | Team BRM | +5.1367 |
| NC | 101 | Luis Leeds | AGI Sport | |
| NC | 23 | Tim Macrow | TMR | |
| NC | 24 | John Martin | AGI Sport |
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