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Carrera Cup Australia
New Zealander Callum Hedge crossed the line first in both the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Round 5 races, ahead of Dylan O’Keeffe and Bayley Hall. However, the Team Porsche NZ/Earl Bamber Motorsport driver lost his first race win due to a jump start before he pulled off a last lap, final corner pass to win the second.
The Porsches were down for two races at Sandown Raceway with a scheduled 18-lap sprint ahead of the Endurance race which went 28 laps later.
Hedge led all the way to cross the finish first and was less than a second ahead of pole sitter RAM Motorsport’s O’Keeffe in the first outing. However, he was deemed to have marginally jumped the start and the five-second penalty relegated him to third behind McElrea Racing’s Bayley Hall.
David Russell (EBM) crossed the finish fourth after TekworkX Motorsport’s Max Vidau had a tyre come off the rim that caused him to smack the Armco at Turn 3. Russell placed ahead of Dale Wood and Fabian Coulthard who diced throughout in front of David Wall, Simon Fallon and Christian Pancione.
In Pro Am, Sam Shahin led all the way to finish ahead of Dean Cook and Liam Talbot who stepped in for Luke King for the weekend. Not getting away at the start hurt Adrian Flack, plus a spin at Turn 1 to avoid a melee, meant he was eighth in class.
Hall did get the jump at the start of the Enduro, but O’Keeffe rallied to be first into Turn 1. The latter had the front running and appeared to be set for a second win, even negotiating lapped traffic.
Hedge closed on the final lap and even then, O’Keeffe appeared to have the lead covered. But Hedge seized the opportunity to dive under him at Turn 11 for the win. Hall trailed the two to the flag and was well ahead of Wood and Russell.
Then followed Coulthard just in front of a charging Vidau. Fallon was eighth in front of Angelo Mouzouris, 10th-placed Maxwell, Garnet Patterson, Ryder Quinn and Courtney Prince. David Wall was eighth early but had contact from Jackson Walls at Turn 9.
Wall made it to the pits while Walls continued for half a lap before he stopped and necessitated a Safety Car. Nick McBride went out early and Pancione retired after 14 laps.
The Pro Am honours went to Flack who led all the way and finished 14th, on the road just in front of Cook and Shahin. Talbot was fourth from Rodney Jane.
V8 SuperUtes
Two race wins and a very close second has seen Aaron Borg rein in vital points in the Haltech V8 Superutes Series.
In the first of the three races, Adam Marjoram (Mitsubishi Triton) won the start from the outside of the front row and led Borg (Isuzu D-MAX), points leader David Sieders (Mazda BT-50) and Ryal Harris (Ford Ranger).
It took two attempts for Borg to get the lead. In the first attempt they ran side-by-side down from Turn 6 but Marjoram prevailed. On the next lap Borg went around the outside of the leader at Turn 6 and made the move stick.
Borg maintained the front running for the remainder to win from Marjoram while Harris finished ahead of Sieders in third. Jimmy Vernon (Triton) held off George Gutierrez (Holden Colorado) while Brewczynski got the better of his WSM Toyota Hilux teammates Walsh and Woods.
The grid lotto for Race 2 saw the top six reversed. Vernon led from the outset, ahead of Harris, Gutierrez, Sieders and Borg. On Lap 2 Harris went to the lead and Gutierrez slipped to fourth behind Vernon and Sieders.
Borg moved to third on Lap 3, relegated Vernon on Lap 7 and very gradually nullified the gap to Harris. On the last lap they were line astern before Borg made a tight exit out of the final corner and missed the win by just 0.04s.
Three seconds away, it was also close for third where Vernon was able to hold off Marjoram. Then followed Brewczynski, Woods, Gutierrez, Dave Casey (D-MAX) and Walsh. Sieders lost pace and pitted after at the end of seven laps.
The Race 3 grid was determined by the combination of qualifying and the previous race results. Borg won the start and headed Harris until he had a huge moment through the fast Turn 6. He was able to rescue what could have been a nasty result and only lost one spot, to Marjoram.
Harris had further drama a couple laps later when the Ranger cut out on the exit from Turn 9. He made it to pits where he was able to reset and rejoin, albeit a lap down.
Borg withstood the Marjoram challenge to win by 1.2s with Vernon third. Brewczynski was next from Gutierrez. The next group consisted of eight Superutes with Casey in front until late when Woods was able to get past. Behind Casey it was Walsh, Sieders, Adrian Cottrell (Colorado), Jaiden (Triton) and Gerard Maggs (Ranger), split by Espray (D-MAX).
Toyota 86 Series
Clay Richards experienced the highs and lows of motorsport at Round 4 of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series with his first victory in Race 1, followed by a DNF in Race 2 where Campbell Logan had a victory.
After he led from the start of Race 1, Richards survived several challenges to his lead and won by three seconds. The gap said nothing for the competition he had to endure from Ryan Tomsett who had a sniff of the front running on more than one occasion.
The pair ran side-by-side through Turns 6 and 7 on Lap 5, and even further to Turn 11 on the following lap. Shortly after the complexion changed where Richards copped a tap at Turn 9 from Rylan Gray who moved to second with Reuben Goodall third. Tomsett lost out and dropped well down the order.
Richards was clear in the end. Goodall was able to get by Gray for second on the 10th and last lap. The latter was third but penalised post-race five grid spots for Race 2. He crossed the line ahead of Hughes, Logan, Westbury, Bradi Owen, Targett and Steve Owen.
The second race ran over a longer 13 laps. Richards led the first lap from Goodall, Logan, Hughes and Westbury. But on the second laps, the Race 1 winner was passed by Goodall, clearly losing places. He was seventh a lap later and would ultimately retire to the pits with a puncture.
In the meantime, Hughes had a turn at leading, for two laps before Logan took over. He maintained the front running through to the chequered flag with Goodall second and Hughes third. Then followed Westbury from Gray and Bradi Owen. The next group was headed Steve Owen from Jayden Wanzek, Lachlan Bloxsom, Cody Burcher, Tomsett, Jimmy Holdsworth and Ryan Casha.
Qualifying produced the fourth different pole sitter in four rounds with Richards fastest ahead of Tomsett by less that a tenth. Second in the series, Logan was next ahead of Gray, Hughes, Westbury, Goodall, Steve Owen, Burcher and Bradi Owen.
Matt Hillyer lost time as he pitted to have a front guard inner lining removed, James Wilkins spun which meant double yellows at Turn 4, and series leader Casha only managed to qualify 26th
