Championship leader Thomas Sargent won the first race at Bathurst for the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia Series.

He overtook polesitter Ryan Wood off the line and managed to hold him off for the entirety of the Safety Car-interrupted 10-lap race.

“The start was the secret and whoever was going to start in front was going to be making there life a bit easier,” Sargent said. “I got the jump, which was good, and it was just about pioneering across the top on that first lap.

The top two racers gapped the field, with Lachlan Bloxsom more than 6.5s behind Wood on the completion of Lap 2 and this gap became 15 seconds by the halfway point of the race.

Sam Shahin, whose qualifying time was third-quickest overall and best of the Pro-Ams to see him start 9th on the grid, made his way through the field to be seventh on Lap 4 and come home in sixth place in the 10-lap race.

Harrison Goodman also made solid progress after starting eighth, running as high as fourth before a Lap incident saw him drop to 26th and last place, prompting the Safety Car. Racing resumed with two laps remaining for a mad dash to the chequered flag, the end of the race. Sargent managed to hold off a rapid Ryan Wood, who finished a mere 0.4s behind him.

The pair swapped fastest lap after fastest lap, with Sargent prevailing here, too, with a 2:16:73.

“It was a bit unfortunate that the Safety Car came out because the track was just getting better. After the restart that last lap was just hectic with Ryan [Wood], it was awesome racing, nice and clean, we didn’t touch each other. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, just hope it’s not as wet.”

Bloxsom, Aron Shields and Courtney Prince rounded out the top five after 10 laps in Race 1 for the Porsche Sprint Challenge in Bathurst.