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Ryan Wood has won both of today’s Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia races at Mount Panorama to keep his title hopes alive.
With victory in both Race 2 and Race 3 at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International, Wood managed to extend the series battle with Thomas Sargent to the season finale at Phillip Island next month.
Sargent currently leads the Series standings on 744 points, with Wood only 32 points behind on 712.
Yesterday’s Race 1 winner Sargent started Race 2 from pole and made a solid start, but was overtaken by Wood in the Team Porsche New Zealand car at The Chase on the opening lap.
“Pretty happy to bounce back after yesterday, I drove terribly and was pretty disappointed with myself at the way I drove in Race 1,” said Wood after the second race.
“So very happy with the Race 2 win and we’ve still got one more to go [today]. We worked out the car pace and we dominated that race so we’ve got good momentum.”
Sargent had made a good start before the pass from Wood, while further back Harrison Goodman jumped three positions on the opening lap to sit sixth.
Courtney Prince in the Sonic Motor Racing Porsche jumped one spot to fourth and was all over the back of Lachlan Bloxsom, pressuring him for the next laps before being passed by Aron Shields to finish the race where she’d started.
Lap 3 saw the #61 of Adrian D’Silva in the EBM Giga Racing out-braked himself and spun while negotiating The Chase, ending up stranded in the gravel trap, prompting a Safety Car.
When racing resumed with only a single lap remaining, the dash to the chequered flag meant
Wood took the win ahead of Sargent, Bloxsom, Shields and Prince.
The Team New Zealand Porsche drive followed up with victory in the third and final race of the round.
Starting from pole courtesy of the earlier win, the #40 Porsche was in control for the entire race after the start-line drama that unfolded behind him.
Off the line, David Greig stalled in the #87 DW Motorsports entry, with Adrian D’Silva unable to avoid contact, damaging the #61 Porsche badly enough to end his race.
Even more dramatically, Emanuel Mezzasalma and Irdiran Padayachee collided before racing Hell Corner, the pair ending up in the wall to end their afternoon and prompt a Safety Car.
The Safety Car returned to pit lane on Lap 4 and Wood resumed his command of the race.
Controversially, Sam Fillmore broke Safety Car protocol before the restart, overtaking cars ahead of him before attempting to shuffle back into his correct position, which was 10th at the time. The mistake meant he was given a drive-through penalty and finished 19th.
The final lap of the race saw both Pro-Am class leader Sam Shahin and Daniel Stutterd come off at The Chase in separate incidents, with Stutterd unable to finish.
Eric Constantinidis was also out of the race with damage after contact with the wall on Mountain Straight, while Graham Williams locked up at Griffins Bend, sending the Sonic Motor Racing entry into a spin, narrowly avoiding the tyre wall.
Up front, it was smooth sailing for Wood, who was able to record his second win of the day in dominant fashion ahead of Sargent, with Shields, Bloxsom, Harrison and Goodman
Wood also took the Fastest Lap of the race with a 2:07:95, a new race record for the Series.
The final round of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia takes place at Phillip Island on November 25-26th.
