Harri Jones has secured the 2022 Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
Jones claimed the title with a consistent performance on the streets of Surfers Paradise, with a pair of sixth-place finishes and a fifth-place in Race 2 sealing the deal.
“I’m thinking every emotion now, I almost cried coming into pit lane, absolutely over the moon,” Jones said.
“I just can’t thank the whole McElrea team enough, my family, my partner, and commercial partners, I can’t believe it.
“It was a tough weekend for us and it went down right to the last laps, we just had to keep our heads cool, keep focussed and all the hard work paid off this weekend, I’m absolutely stoked.
“The thing in this category [is] you have to bully or you will be bullied. That last race I had the Championship in the back of my mind, so I wanted to get the best position possible and come home with a clean car and that’s exactly what we did. So massive thanks to the team, the Porsche [Motorsport] Pyramid is fantastic and I hope to continue climbing it next year.”
In the Morris Finance Pro-Am class, Geoff Emery was crowned champion.
“It feels unbelievable. Dean Cook did a very good job all year, he’s been an awesome team-mate and a fierce competitor as well, so really happy to equal the points with him and win on the count back,” Emery said.
“It couldn’t be more exciting, very happy with the Championship.
“Its been a pretty up and down season to be honest, got into a bit of trouble here and there, but we going to celebrate at the Awards Evening in town with a couple of beers, it will be great looking forward to it.”
Backing up his 11-spot charge to fourth in Race 1, Aaron Love moved up a further three spots to claim victory in Race 2, the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy decider, taking the chequered flag in the 25-lap affair by nine seconds.
The Western Australian was joined on the podium by Round and Race 1 winner Callum Hedge, and EMA Motorsport’s David Russell.
It was a chaotic start to the race with the Safety Car deployed after the end of Lap 1, after Angelo Mouzouris pulled over on the left hand side of the Beach Chicane.
After watching Adrian Flack have a moment on the run to Turn 11, Pro-Am class contender Sam Shahin went straight into the wall at the same corner.
The Bend Motorsport Park owner was able to recover and attach himself to the rear-of-the-field under the Safety Car.
The race resumed on Lap 5, with Hedge leading the way from Dale Wood, Russell, Love, Jones, Dylan O’Keeffe, David Wall, Nick McBride, Luke Youlden, and Duvashen Padayachee.
Shortly after the re-start there was another Safety Car after Rodney Jane made contact with Pro-Am Class leader Emery into the braking zone for Turn 1, breaking the steering of the #77.
The race resumed on Lap 8, with Hedge leading the way from Wood, Russell, Love, Jones, O’Keeffe, Wall, McBride, Youlden, and Padayachee.
Love then began his assault for the lead, making a move on Wood for second, before relentlessly attacking the rear bumper of Hedge.
He made a decisive move for the lead on Hedge at Turn 11 on Lap 9, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process with a 1:13.0746s as he built a lead of 1.6134s over Hedge.
Love reset the fastest lap lap-after-lap, before breaking the lap record he set yesterday with a 1:11.7955s, with a 4.6s margin over second-placed Hedge.
Later in the race, Russell tagged the wall lapping Pro-Am competitor Marc Cini, slapping the wall on the exit of Turn 11, remaining in third despite the moment.
Title contender O’Keeffe was fourth, while Jones finished fifth to place one hand on the championship trophy.
2017 title winner Wall, Padayachee, McBride, Youlden, and Bayley Hall completed the top 10.
Liam Talbot took the honours in the Morris Finance Pro-Am Class, winning the Enduro Cup and taking the lead of the championship by two points.
He finished ahead of Dean Cook, and Matt Belford.
Love claimed victory in a chaotic Race 3 finale, with Hedge, and Russell rounding out the podium.
The Safety Car was deployed at the end of the opening lap after Christian Pancione was spun around at the Turn 4 hairpin, with Talbot having nowhere to go coming to a complete stop momentarily. Emery took advantage of the situation to pass Talbot while still under green flag conditions and take the class title lead.
The race resumed on Lap 6 with Love going on to take the chequered flag from Hedge, as he fended off a rampant Russell and resurgent Wall.
O’Keeffe, Jones, Youlden, Jackson Walls, Simon Fallon, and Padayachee completed the top 10.
The Morris Pro-Am battle saw Cook leading Flack and Emery, the latter doing just enough to ensure he returned to the lead of the championship on the eventual countback.
The Carrera Cup champions will be formally crowned on the Gold Coast tonight in the return of the traditional end-of-season awards gala.
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