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Despite two Safety Car periods, Shane Smollen has made it two from two, winning the second race of the opening round of the Mobil 1 Australian Production Cars/Monochrome GT4 series.
The GT4 Porsche Cayman 718 pilot executed a great start to lead fellow Porsche steerer Tony Quinn to Turn 1 in the scheduled 30-minute race. Meanwhile, Karl Begg (GT4 Mercedes-AMG GT) went nowhere at the start and when he did get up to race pace, was 12th.
Steve Jukes (GT4 BMW F82 M4) held third place at the end of the opening laps ahead of Coleby Cowham (Class A2 Ford Mustang), Dean Campbell (Class A1 Mitsubishi EVO X), Mark Griffith (GT4 Mercedes), George Miedecke (A2 Mustang), Grant Sherrin (Class X M4), Chris Lillis (A2 HSV Clubsport R8) and Iain Sherrin (Class X M4).
The first Safety Car came on Lap 4 after Michael Rowell’s Mustang went off track with a puncture. Shortly after the race went green again, Trevor Symonds and Chris Delfsma had contact at Turn 4. Both suffered damage with the former’s HSV off into the gravel trap, and the latter’s Mustang able to make it back to the pits.
There were two laps of racing left after the Safety Car was withdrawn. Smollen consolidated for the win as Quinn fended off Griffith for second. Jukes was fourth as Begg recovered to fifth. Cowham lost the A2 lead to Miedecke, but the latter had dramas later and dropped well down the order.
Cowham also lost out to Grant Sherrin as the leading Production Car while Iain Sherrin’s eighth earnt him third place in Production Cars. Lillis was next ahead of a great drive from Tyler Mecklem (EVO X) who took out Class A1 after he started rear of grid, following suspension failure in Race 1.
He was followed across the line by Campbell, Tim Sipp (Class X M4), Brian Callaghan (Clubsport) and Anthony Levitt (A2 Mercedes C63 AMG) who was another race one non-finisher due to a tyre blowout.
Tom Needham (Mazda 3 MPS), Liam Moyse (Toyota 86), Rob Rubis (BMW 135i) and Phil Alexander (Mazda 3 SP25) were also repeat winners in their respective class C, D, B1 and E.
The Shannons SpeedSeries action is streaming live and ad-free on Stan Sport in Australia, and free on Speedcafe for international viewers.
