Aron Shields has powered his way to his first Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia round win after two podiums and a race win at Sydney Motorsport Park last weekend.
In what was a dominant weekend for the TekworkX Motorsport team, Shields outlasted Grove Racing’s Oscar Targett in race three to take out the round victory ahead of his teammate, Nash Morris.
After claiming a first ever pole position on Friday, Shields’ form was clear from day one and was able to convert the position into two second-place finishes before the all-important win on Sunday.
Morris beat Shields in dominant fashion in race one, before a bold last lap overtake from Nash on Shields sealed back-to-back wins.
But a spin at turn 11 in the third race was detrimental to Morris’ push for an outright round win in his first category appearance of the season, coming home to finish in 12th place as a result.
Despite the spin, Morris still banked enough points to finish second outright ahead of series leader Marco Giltrap in third.
The third-place finish sees Giltrap extend his lead at the top of the standings over fellow New Zealand compatriot, Ronan Murphy – whose fifth place finish in race three proved his best of a troubled weekend.
The round win sees Shields skyrocket to fourth in the standings – only four points behind Zac Stitchbury in fourth, after the Team Porsche New Zealand / EMB entry struggled to impact the top five all weekend long.
“We are really stoked with the round win, I feel like it was a long time coming and a lot of blood sweat and tears have gone into getting results over the last 18 months, to finally get it was an amazing feeling,” Shields said.
“The weekend obviously went really well; we had a lot of car speed which we had been working on a lot as a team and that gave us my first ever pole position.
“It was like a monkey off the back, if you want to win races you are best at starting from the front. I knew there was a job to be done having my teammate Nash (Morris) beside me.
“I had never raced with Nash before, he is a great racer, he has a few little tricks up his sleeves and he is a hard racer, but a fair one.
“We had really good pace and were full of confidence all weekend long and obviously that was turned into results.”
Taking out the weekend’s Pro-Am class honours was Ages National / EBM’s Adrian Flack, who charged his way to three class wins across the weekend ahead of Ares Group entry Matt Slavin and class leader Sam Shahin.
It was an incredible debut for Stephen Moylan, who powered his Effect Building Projects backed Porsche to a race three victory after Car Mods Australia’s Bradley Carr failed to finish the race.
The category will now turn its attention to Queensland Raceway next month, when the series joins the Shannons SpeedSeries schedule for the fourth round of what has been an incredible season to date.
“I have done many laps around QR, it’s been my main testing track for the last two years, so I’ve certainly cut a lap or two around there,” Shields added.
“I loved racing there last year; it is where I picked up my first podium, so it holds a lot of memories for me. But hopefully this year we can get to that top step.
“I’ve been watching SpeedSeries this year, Tasmania, Phillip Island and Winton have all been great and I can’t wait to join.”
The next round of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge will take place at Queensland Raceway on 11-13 August.