Craig Baird recorded a routine victory in the final Porsche Carrera Cup race at Mount Panorama while Warren Luff secured his first round win of the season.

The reigning champion managed to get the jump at the start and from there he controlled the pace of the race.

Race two winner Luff pushed the Kiwi expat hard around the 6.2km circuit but was unable to halt Baird’s progress, as he took the win and extended his championship lead in the process.

However, the round belonged to Luff as he finished second in race one, won race two and finished second in race three.

“We didn’t qualify well here which has hampered us as you have to be on the front row to get a race win here”, said Baird.

“The boys at the front are so sharp. the car was good in qualifying and I probably let it down but I certainly made up for it in race three.”

Round winner Luff was even happier as he finally wrapped up a round win to boost his title hopes.

“It’s been a long time coming and I’ve got to thank everyone who has helped put this together as I’m very happy to get a round win”, said Luff.

The start as ever proved to be a critical factor and it was Baird who just slotted ahead of
polesitter Luff at the first corner.

Hell corner once again provided plenty of entertainment as contact for race one winner Nick Percat dropped him to the rear of the field.

The bunching at the first turn allowed Steven Richards to move into third spot followed by Michael Patrizi and Shae Davies.

By lap four the top two had pulled away from the rest of the field and the victory was going to be decided by a duel between Baird and Luff. The Kiwi was being pushed hard around the Mountain with just four tenths separating the pair.

There was drama just two laps later when Davies suffered a scary moment when his car let go at The Chase.

He was able to recover as the car became beached in the gravel.

Result Race 3