The three categories completed the program in the SRO Shannons SpeedSeries second round at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge
A blitzing first lap has seen Kamal Mrad go on and cross the line first in the third and final race of Round 2. But a 5.0 penalty for a start-line infringement gave victory to James Lodge who was also the round winner.
Ryan Casha was a close second at the finish while Mrad was relegated to third ahead of Lochie Bloxsom and Jake Santalucia.
After two sprint races on Saturday, Sunday’s longer series-within-a-series Jim Richards Endurance Trophy saw Mrad, from the second row, pull off a stunning around-the-outside move at Turn 2 over Race 2 winner Bloxsom to snatch the lead on the first lap.
Just two corners later Lodge slipped inside Bloxsom, to grab second while Casha held fourth in front of Race 1 victor Tom Bewley. Then followed Santalucia, Jacque Jarjo and Tyler Greenbury who had a moment and lost some of his front splitter and later spun at Turn 1.
Mrad maintained his frontrunning despite was 3.2s ahead at the end of the race. Casha eventually passed Bloxsom and then attacked Lodge but fell short by 0.11s. Behind Santalucia a great drive by Daniel Quimby in the Class B car took sixth as he was able to mix and beat several in the Pro class.
New Zealanders filled the next four spots with Bewley, Jackson Rooney, Will Exton and Hunter Robb ahead of Pro Am winner Ramu Farrell.
First Focus Radical Cup Australia
There was no change at the front in Races 3 and 4 of Round 2 where Cooper Cutts was able ward off the early challenge from Peter Paddon for another two wins.
Rualridh Avern fended off Brad Russell to secure third for the duration, but a 15s post-race penalty would relegate Avern to sixth. In the meantime, Mark Brame was to pass Russell what would ultimately be third.
Russell would then be challenged by New Zealander Tim Edgell until the latter was sidelined when his battery lost power. That elevated Chris Rindler to fifth while Warwick Morris was eight in front of Terry Knowles and Jim Hernandez.
In the fourth and last race, Cutts and Paddon went side-by-side off the start to Turn 2 where for the fourth time Cutts grabbed the lead. The two drove away from the rest for another first and second as Josh Hunt was a comfortable third.
Avern was fourth in front of Moore, Edgell, Brame, Russell and Peter Clare. The race didn’t finish well for Warwick Churche who went off entering Turn 11 and into the tyre wall.
Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli
Antoine Gittany led all the way to win the second race of Round 3. However, this won was far closer than his previous victories as he was only 0.5s ahead of Enzo Cheng.
Cameron Campbell was prominent early in third but had a lose out of Turn 7. Jim Pollicina was close behind Cheng for several laps before Cheng skipped clear and began to chase down the race leader.
Gittany was struggling with tyre wear over the final laps as Cheng closed but need just a couple of more laps. Pollicina was third from Japan’s Norikazu Shibata, David Tewern, Mark Hudders and Masahiro Taguchi also from Japan.
Discussion about this post