The Grove Racing Junior took out the early longer race at the NTI Townsville 500, but was beaten in the last by Hamish Fitzsimmons who recorded a dominant victory.
Targett was the overall winner ahead of his Earl Bamber Motorsport teammate Brock Gilchrist and TekworkX Motorsport’s Fitzsimmons. Also, out of TekworkX, Danny Stutterd won Pro-Am and Brad Carr was the best in Class B.
Targett overcame early race pressure from Gilchrist to win the Jim Richards Endurance Championship race in the morning.
Targett made the best start and led as he defended from his teammate Brock Gilchrist. McElrea Racing’s Clay Osborne was immediately behind but slipped away from them as the race progress and maintained third throughout.
Fitzsimmons gained 10 spots to finish fourth in front of Tyler Greenbury, while Nash Morris worked his way from the back to finish ahead of Aron Shields.
Jake Santalucia and Caleb Sumich in eighth and 10th, split by Ayrton Hobson, made good comebacks after they crashed in Race 1 and their repairs went well into the night.
In the Pro-Am, Brett Boulton and Lachy Harburg made contact on the first lap which put the former out. Harburg recovered for second in class, behind Stutterd who was 12th outright. Ahead of them in 11th, Carr won Class B over Jacque Jarjo who was 13th.
The race ran 29 laps and concluded behind the Safety Car, a result of a late spin by Eric Constantinidis that left him stranded at Turn 7.
In Race 3, Fitzsimmons powered from the second row of the grid to be second behind Targett while Gilchrist held third ahead of Greenbury, Osborne, Morris, Santalucia, Aron Shiels and Sumich.
On the second lap Targett had a brake lockup at Turn 2, slipped wide and Fitzsimmons took full advantage. That was just before the Safety Car was deployed for an incident on Lap 1 where Indiran Padayachee had wall contact and couldn’t get back to the pits.
At the race resumption, Greenbury pulled off past the start/finish line which elevated Osborne to fourth. Fitzsimmons was able to skip away as the scrap for second intensified. Gilchrist passed Targett on Lap 7, but the latter was able to hit back a couple of laps later.
In the end Fitzsimmons had built a whopping 9.2s advantage. Targett held off Gilchrist for second while Osborne finished fourth. However, he copped a 5s penalty for a start breach and was relegated to seventh behind Morris, Sumich and Santalucia.
Stutterd took out Pro-Am ahead of class rival Harburg after Brett Boulton received a 15s penalty for a restart infringement. Class B went Jarjo in 12th outright, over Carr two spots further back.
The next round of the Porsche Sprint Challenge will be at Queensland Raceway on August 2-4.
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