A combination of a maiden 2018 round victory for Simon Fallon and a Cooper Murray retirement at Queensland Raceway has set up an epic final end to the Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge Australia.
With just two rounds remaining at Winton Motor Raceway and Sydney Motorsport Park, Murray’s lead at the top of the outright standings has been reduced to just five points.
After winning the first race of the Shannons Nationals in Ipswich, Murray was on track to claim his sixth consecutive race win and what would have been the round, but Fallon managed to steal the second race.
Murray’s retirement in the final race of the weekend and Fallon’s hard earned win over Max Vidau, allowed Fallon to take the round and close in on Cooper’s 47 point lead.
Two second places during the round saw Vidau secure outright second, which built a solid buffer between him and Jimmy Vernon in fourth.
Vernon and Chelsea Angelo battled for the final spot of the podium all weekend with Angelo eventually finishing ahead of Vernon, thanks to her pair of thirds in the final two races.
Despite Vernon finishing below Angelo, he still holds a slight lead in the standings to stay fourth outright, however with the Sydney based driver unlikely to compete at Winton, Angelo should overtake him at the end of the Victorian round.
In the Pro-Am class, Daniel Stutterd remains at the top of the standings despite not winning the round for the first time this year.
Round honours went to his closest rival in Brett Boulton who won every race and claiming a class clean sweep in style.
Boulton did no harm in keeping his class title alive to move within 74 points of Stutterd at the top of the class, with a win at Winton potentially changing the standings.
Michael Hovey stayed third in the class after his round podium while Shane Barwood overtook an absent Ben Stack to move into fourth, moving Stack into fifth.
Christian Pancione continued his dominance of Class B, securing a class clean sweep taking his consecutive race win total to five.
The youngster’s seven-straight podium finishes has given him a 167 class point buffer over second placed Phil Morriss, in what looks to be the B title secured.
While Morriss may struggle to catch Pancione, he has other things to worry about s the final two rounds will provide a showdown with David Greig in third place.
In the class points, Grieg currently sits just one point behind Morriss, however he holds a 24 point lead in outright points.
Tom Taplin and Andrew Goldie closed the gap on fourth placed Richard Bloomfield who did not attend Queensland Raceway, with Taplin just ahead of Goldie to round out the top five.
Click here for the full standings.
The Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge Australia’s next round is with the Shannons Nationals at Winton Motor Raceway on 1 – 2 September.
