Le Brocq keeps title hopes alive after Sydney win

Jack Le Brocq has ensured that the Dunlop Series title battle will go down to the final race of the season after winning Race 1 at the Coates Hire Sydney 500.

Le Brocq made a solid start from pole position and never looked back as the GoGetta Falcon driver claimed a sixth race win of the year.

James Golding ran second for the duration in his Wilson Security GRM Commodore.

Series leader Garry Jacobson lost one position to emerge fourth from the first corner and soon came under pressure from Bryce Fullwood, who had made up three positions.

That became a battle for third place when Macauley Jones locked up and threw his Payce BJR Commodore down the road on Lap 6.

Jacobson initially survived one attempted move by Fullwood, but could hold on no longer when the 18-year-old Darwin native dived past with three laps remaining.

Fullwood then held his nerve as Todd Hazelwood closed in during the final laps to take his Middy’s Data Falcon across the line for a first ever podium finish.

Hazelwood picked his way through the field from ninth on the grid to take fourth, passing the struggling Jacobson on Lap 15.

Jacobson finished fifth, ahead of Taz Douglas, Anton de Pasquale, Andrew Jones, Macauley Jones, and Richard Muscat.

The 17-lap race ran Safety Car-free for the duration despite a Lap 4 pile-up at the train station complex.

Chelsea Angelo turned Richard Muscat around, trapping Renee Gracie, Kurt Kostecki, and Matthew Palmer as the track was briefly blocked.

Stewards advised that Angelo was under investigation for the incident, just after she had been issued a drive-through penalty for turning de Pasquale around two laps earlier.

Meanwhile ,Jacobson need only get his Challenger Valves Falcon to the finish to beat his Prodrive team-mate Le Brocq to the title tomorrow.

The field will qualify again from 1135 AEDT before Race 2, starting at 1420.

Result: Dunlop Series Race 1