Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia
Thomas Sargent has stormed to the top of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia series lead after back-to-back victories.
Starting on the front row alongside pole sitter Ryan Wood in the opening race, Sargent got the lead early on the opening lap, to which he never relinquished on his way to victory – the youngster also producing a lap record during the race.
Sargent and Wood were the standout performers in race two and once again broke away from the pack but the race was ultimately finished under safety car after a big crash – resulting in Sargent taking out the victory.
Sam Shahin also claimed a pair of wins in the Pro-Am class, as he got the better of Brett Boulton in both races.
In Class B, Brad Car enjoyed a win on debut in the opening race after winning an entertaining duel with Tom McLennan, before McLennan took out the victory in the second race.
The series has just one race tomorrow and opens up the Stan Sport live broadcast at 11:10am.
Australian Production Cars
The annual Fight in the Night was back tonight and it was familar names to victory lane who took out top honours – Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey.
In what was an impressive turn of fortunes for the duo, they ended up taking out a 37-second victory in their substitute BMW M3 after their main car caught fire in yesterday’s action.
Taking out second place were fellow high-profile Production Car stars Iain and Grent Sherrin, the former Fight in the Night winners crossing the finish line ahead of Ben Gersekowski – the result confirming a BMW podium lockout.
Although Lynton and Leahey enjoyed a better day today than yesterday, the same couldn’t be said for polesitters Drew Russell and Aaron Russell who were one of five retirements having only completed 16 laps.
The series has the second of its two race tomorrow afternoon.
GC Marine Australian Prototype Series
John Paul Drake won the opening race of the GC Marine Australian Prototype Series in a close fought battle that went down to the wire.
Drake edged Ricky Capo on the final lap, taking the chequered flag by the narrowest of margins – just 0.2s separating the pair.
It looked like an upset was in the making at Queensland Raceway, with Phil Hughes leading the field for the majority of the race, however a spin on the final lap saw Hughes
Nobody could pass the Radical SR8 pilot for the vast majority of the 14-lap affair, who took the lead off pole-sitter Ryan Godfrey off the line, but a spin on the final saw him out of contention, as he limped home in fourth behind Godfrey.
Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia
Shane van Gisbergen and Prince Jeffri Ibrahim have won the opening race of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia (Motorsport Australia GT Championship) in style.
While van Gisbergen ended up crossing the finish line in first, it was Ibrahim who did all the hard work to get the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes AMG GT3 to victory.
Ibrahim started the race but lost lots of ground in the opening stages of the race, before producing a stunning recovery drive that saw him charge through the field.
By the time van Gisbergen took over, the duo were in the lead and the Repco Supercars Championship star just cruised to a 12-second victory over polesitters Yasser Shahin and Garth Tander, while Liam Talbot and Fraser Ross rounded out the podium.
Audi R8 LMS EVO driver Mark Rosser ended up winning the AM class and Brad Schumacher comfortably took out the GT Trophy Series.
The Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia continues tomorrow with another one-hour endurance race at 2:10pm.
Radical Cup Australia
The Radical Cup Australia series title fight is heating up with champion racer Peter Paddon securing a victory in the opening race.
With Paddon and Peter Carr sharing driving duties in the #31 Radical SR3, it was a thrilling conclusion to the 40-lap race, with less than one second separating the top three.
Finishing just six tenths behind Paddon was long-time rival Chris Perini, while Brad Neilson finished just one tenth behind in third place.
There was plenty of drama to occur through the 50-minute race with young gun Elliot Schutte retiring after just 30 laps – a cruel blow after he led for a couple of laps early.
The series has just one more race and will kick off Sunday’s action at 8:45am AEST.
TCR Australia Series
Series leader Toby D’Alberto has claimed his first win of the 2022 season after dominating from lights-out to the chequered flag.
D’Alberto was too good for the 18-car field as both he and his biggest challenger in Zac Soutar constantly broke away from the pack throughout the race, which had a delayed start and a safety car period.
Both times, D’Alberto blasted away and although Soutar stayed in touch, never got within half a second of him.
Rounding out the podium was Jay Hanson, who slotted into third early on in the race after Will Brown ended up in the grass on the first lap.
While there wasn’t much drama at the front of the field, there was plenty of drama behind with Nathan Morcom and Ben Bargwanna’s collision the most notable.
The Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series has another two races tomorrow.
Turtle Wax Trans Am Series
Nathan Herne had a major boost towards his second title after a faultless performance in the series’ sole race of the day saw him move to top spot.
Herne avoided opening corner chaos between title rivals Owen Kelly and Tim Brook to adopt the lead, as both drivers tumbled down the order, along with Nash Morris who ended up in the sand trap.
Category debutant Brodie Kostecki and Jett Johnson both took advantage of the same incident, moving up to second and third respectively, but it was the latter who showed up the Supercars driver to ultimately finish second overall in a personal best result.
Kostecki still showed strong pace to finish four seconds ahead of Brett Holdsworth, who only just edged out Lochie Dalton for fourth place – the young Tasmanian still enjoying an impressive fifth place after making up seven places.
Kelly ended up salvaging some important points towards his season campaign with eighth overall, whereas Brook finished down in 22nd.
Two more races await the series, with the first race at 12:55pm tomorrow.
