Max Vidau has taken a comprehensive race win in Round 3 of the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia at the NTI Townsville 500.

After he was gifted Race 1 on Saturday, the  TekworkX Motorsport driver stamped his authority on Race 2, leading from the outset and ultimately pulling a 2.5s gap by the end of the 27-lap opener to the series-within-a-series Endurance Cup. Second throughout was Scotty Taylor Motorsport’s and 2004 Champion Alex Davison.

Callum Hedge who lost his Race 1 victory with an infringement penalty and started sixth, quickly made his way to third where he remained for the duration. Behind the leading Earl Bamber Motorsport driver came series leader Jackson Walls (McElrea Racing) who passed David Wall (Wall Racing) on the second lap.

There was an early Safety Car to extract Christian Pancione out of the tyres at Turn 3. Angelo Mouzouris had tried to sneak down the inside of Pancione before they had contact. Mouzouris would have damaged steering as a result and a 15s penalty. Chris Pither was on the outside of the two and was forced to take the escape road and resume 21st.=

It was a quick interruption before racing resumed. The order behind Wall stagnated with Fabian Coulthard after he was shuffled down the order a couple of spots on the first lap. Behind the Melbourne Performance Centre driver, it was Dylan O’Keeffe, and then Bayley Hall and Simon Fallon after the two started rear of field.

Nick McBride placed tenth ahead of Luke King and Pither who was able to retrieve nine places and placed ahead with Equity One Pro drivers filling the top 12 places. The first of the SP Tools Pro Am drivers as in 13th where Adrian Flack had to withstand a late charge from class rival Sam Shahin and the two were split by 1.2s in the end.

Behind Pro Courtney Prince, Dean Cook was third in Pro Am ahead of Rodney Jane. Round 2 outright winner Dale Wood eventually finished 18th after he tangled with Tom Maxwell on two occasions, and both received 15s penalties. It didn’t matter so much for the latter as he DNF’d with radiator damage.