Jonny Reid has won Race 3 of the Porsche City Index Carrera Cup Australia in Townsville, and in doing so, collected his second round win of the season.
After winning Race 2 earlier in the day, the New Zealand driver continued his run at the front in Race 3, leading Craig Baird and Race 1 winner Alex Davison in the opening lap.
While Davison moved past Baird into second on Lap 2, Reid had pulled a gap on the field and remained unchallenged until a Safety Car on Lap 11 – called to the track after Nick Foster and Andre Heimgartner made high-speed contact at Turn 1.
The contact sent Heimgartner into the wall, with Foster subsequently handed a 40 point penalty for the incident.
The chequered flag was waved under the caution period, leaving Reid to claim his fifth race victory for the season – the highest number of wins by any driver this year.
“It was a near perfect weekend. We learnt from Race 1 where we held a comfortable lead and then fell into the clutches of Alex Davison, finishing second. I knew I had to go one better today and really work hard with the boys to get that car working perfectly,” said Reid.
“Race 3 was the closest we’ve had the car to being perfect. All in all, two fastest laps, two wins and a second place for the round win was a great weekend.”
Davison and Baird finished second and third ahead of Steven Richards, Daniel Gaunt, Matt Kingsley, Tim Leahey and Max Twigg in eighth.
Twigg capitalised on Smollen’s misfortune in the final race, where the latter spun on Lap 2 and dropped to the rear of the field after taking the Elite Class race win in the previous two Townsville races.
Twigg therefore inherited the round victory and strengthened his Elite Class points lead.
With three rounds remaining in the 2012 season, Baird holds a 78-point lead in the standings ahead of Davison, with Reid reducing his margin to Davison to 95 points in third. Reid’s position has been hampered by missing the first round.
Max Twigg now leads the Elite Class by 249 points over James Koundouris, who was absent from the Townsville round. Shane Smollen is third in the points.
