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Australia Production Car Series
Will Brown and Rod Salmon emerged victorious in the opening Australian Production Car Series race at Winton after late drama hit the Chaz Mostert and Nathan Morcom Ford Focus RS.
A strong, consistent performance saw Brown and Salmon emerge at the front of the field with 13 laps remaining in the 300km enduro.
Mostert, who’d taken control of the Focus at around half distance, had been leading the race when the front left tyre began to peel off the rim.
The resulting stop more than accounted for their 30-second lead, emerging from pit lane effectively a lap behind Brown.
Early leaders Bob Pearson and Rick Bates raced home to third at the flag, though were more than a lap down before Brown eased off the pace in the closing laps and allowed them to gain their lap back.
Sherrin brothers Grant and Iain endured a troubled day, with a fuel pump failure in qualifying forcing the BMW M4 to start from the rear of the grid, then a blown engine ending their race with 25 laps left on the board.
Winning class B1 was Scott Gore and Keith Beasley in the BMW 135i in fourth outright, while Class C was claimed by Ric Shaw and Andrew Bollom in fifth overall.
One place further back was Class D winners Dominic Martens and James Keane while Class E went to Jason Walsh and Paul Currie.
Gerry Burges and Leigh Burges claimed the Class I victory, while the only A2 entry, Chirs Lillis and Vince Ciallella, were one of six retirements.
Tyler Everingham and Michael Almond weren’t classified finishers, nearly 73 laps adrift of the race winners.
The Australian Production Car Series has another 300 kilometre enduro tomorrow afternoon, starting at 1320 AEST.
Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge
A commanding performance saw Jordan Love win the opening Jim Richards Endurance Trophy race of the season at Winton as part of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge.
Love started on the front row alongside Anthony Gilbertson, who ultimately dropped to fourth by the end of the 35-lap encounter.
GT3 Cup Challenge debutant Peter Major, who qualified on the second row, leapt to an early lead before the slow-starting Love recovered to take the lead on lap 10.
Brenton Grove rounded out the podium, ahead of a tight battle between Gilbertson and John Karytinos.
The round concludes with two races in quick succession tomorrow morning, Love set to start Race 2 from pole position courtesy of today’s result.
Australian Prototype Series
Victory went to Jason Makris in the opening Australian Prototype Series race of the weekend, holding out Aaron Steer and Terry Peovitis across the line.
Steer had taken the lead mid-way through the race only for Makris to reclaim top spot on the final lap.
Peovitis also found a way through on Steer, though a post-race penalty for a jump start saw the second placed car relegated to fourth once a ten-second penalty was applied, promoting John Paul-Drake into the final podium position.
Sunday features two 25-minute races, the first at 1030 before the final race of the weekend at 1145.
Australian GT Trophy Series
Jake Fouracre claimed pole by more than 1.5-seconds over second placed Steve McLaughlan for tomorrow’s Trophy Series opener.
Fouracre, who is sharing with Rio Nugara in an Audi R8 LMS, set a 1:18.967s to take pole, beating the previous qualifying lap record by more than 2.5s.
The top four is all-Audi with Matt Stoupas and Rod Salmon in third and fourth respectively, while Richard Gartner recorded the fifth-fastest time of the day.
Australian GT has two races tomorrow, the first at 0930 and the second 50-minute race at 1220.
