The Garth Walden Racing driver didn’t put a step wrong. After he won Race 1 on Saturday, he followed up with a pair of race wins to take the round and the points lead ahead of reigning champion Harri Jones.
O’Keeffe was able to edge ahead of Jones into Turn 1 for the final race as the Jones Motorsport driver attempted to hold on around the outside. That allowed Jackson Walls to slip down the inside and snare second.
For 14 of the 18 laps, O’Keeffe and Walls looked set for a quinella. However Walls had a lazy spin at Turn 6 on Lap 15 and slipped to fourth behind Jones and Earl Bamber Motorsport’s Bayley Hall. TekworkX Motorsport’s David Russell was next ahead of Glen Wood (EBM) and Sonic Racing’s Marcos Flack.
Flack’s teammate Angelo Mouzouris was seventh after an early clash with Dale Wood at Turn 5 caused the latter to spin and eventually finish 15th. Oscar Targett was eighth ahead of Marco Giltrap and Walls after his spin.
The grid for Race 2 held earlier was set off the second best qualifying times. Jones was on pole with O’Keeffe alongside and Russell and Dale Wood on the second row.
O’Keeffe won the race to the first corner and was never headed, despite constant pressure from Jones for 29 of the 45-minute race laps that ultimately went for 36.
Jones just overcooked enough at Turn 5 on Lap 30 to lose touch with O’Keeffe and his second place to Hall. O’Keeffe won by 1.7 seconds over Hall and Jones who were line astern.
Fourth was Walls ahead of Glen Wood, Flack, Targett, Mouzouris, Giltrap and Tom McLennan. Russell was 11th after a fight back from last. He had contact from Dale Wood into Turn 6 that not only caused Russell to spin but put Wood into several rotations and out of the race.
Behind the Pro drivers in both races, it was a tight contest in Pro-Am. Matt Belford (GWR) led the class home in both, ahead of Rodney Jane and Matt Slavin. In Race 2 the three were covered by one second before Belford won by 0.4s in Race 3. Slavin was further back after a spin.
The next round of Porche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australian will be at Queensland Raceway on August 8-10.
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