Ryal Harris has taken over the points lead after winning Race 3 of the Auto One V8 Ute Racing Series at Mount Panorama this morning.
After recording two wins and a fourth place across the weekend Harris claimed the overall round victory ahead of David Sieders and Cameron McConville.
The battle for Race 3 honours went down to the wire with Harris holding on to claim first place by just 0.4432s from Sieders.
“As soon as my engineer told me that the race would be ended a lap early I went really defensive straight away and held Sieders off,” said Harris post race.
“Cameron (McConville) made a mistake and I capitilised straight away. I won here and at the Gold Coast last year so I’m hoping to repeat that… October must be a good month for me.”
Harris is hoping to move up to V8 Supercars’ Dunlop Series next year if funding can be found.
“I’ve tested with Matt Stone Racing at Queensland Raceway and it went really well but doing the Development Series is almost impossible unless you have money to bring,” he said.
Once into second place, Sieders broke the V8 Utes lap record that Harris had set in Race 2, but ran out of time with the race finishing one lap short of the scheduled distance.
Gerard McLeod, who is the son of 1987 Bathurst 1000 winner Peter McLeod, was involved in the only major incident when he spun at Griffins Bend on Lap 3.
Cameron McConville finished in third place after he charged from the front row of the grid to lead the field into Turn 1 on the opening lap.
The Holden Racing Team co-driver suffered with tyre damage after he locked a wheel when he accidentally used his V8 Supercar brake marker at Griffins Bend on Lap 3.
Ryan Hansford, Gary MacDonald, Andrew Fisher, Kris Walton, Nathan Pretty, Craig Dontas and Jack Elsgood rounded out the top 10.
While wildcard entry Tony Longhurst steered clear of trouble to finish 12th in the 35 car field.
Round 6 of the Auto One V8 Ute Racing Series will be at Surfers Paradise as part of the Armor All Gold Coast 600 in two weeks time.
