Andre Heimgartner has dominated the final race of Porsche Carrera Cup Australia’s penultimate 2017 event at Mount Panorama to claim the round victory, while Tim Miles capped a successful Bathurst weekend with a TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge clean sweep.
After placing third and first in the opening two races, Heimgartner charged to the lead at the start of Sunday’s race three and quickly established a strong race lead. The New Zealander continued his record-setting pace to the chequered flag to ultimately claim a six-second victory over Alex Davison in second, meanwhile eclipsing Matt Campbell’s 2015 race lap record with a time of 2:07.1820 on the second-to-last lap.
“Getting the round win at Bathurst is always pretty good. The race start was good and I managed to get into the lead at the first corner and, from there, I just put my head down,” said Heimgartner.
“The car was amazing, it was straight the whole race and I didn’t have to push too hard and got the lap record as well. Overall, the weekend couldn’t have gone much better, apart from the first race. I’m now looking forward to the Bathurst 1000 later today.”
Davison placed second after passing series leader David Wall at The Chase mid-race, though race one winner Wall secured second place for the round, with Davison taking to the third step on the podium.
Nick McBride and Cam McConville placed fourth and fifth, respectively, finishing just behind the Davison/Wall battle, with race two action man Jaxon Evans charging from the rear of the grid to sixth by the chequered flag. Dan Gaunt finished seventh from James Abela, Dylan O’Keeffe, Jordan Love and Michael Almond in 11th.
Tim Miles was the class of the TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge in all three races, including Sunday’s final race of the weekend. Miles placed 12th outright and was the lead Challenge entry to the finish, completing his Bathurst clean sweep of race wins.
“I really have to thank the McElrea Racing guys as they’ve helped me drive the car cleanly and consistently, as well as giving me a great car. The other guys were taking care of themselves so I had to remain consistent to get it done. I’m over the moon,” said Miles.
Simon Ellingham placed 13th in the final race from Max Twigg, who’s second place in the Challenge class was the highlight in an otherwise horrid weekend. Sam Shahin was 15th outright and third in class for the race from Graham Williams in 16th.
For Williams, fourth in the Challenge class in the final race was enough to place the Carrera Cup rookie on the second step of the Challenge class podium, with Marc Cini, who was caught up in a turn one incident with Stephen Grove, finishing third in the Challenge class for the round.
Stephen Grove’s difficult weekend at Bathurst was bittersweet; the Melbourne based racer secured the TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge title with one round remaining. The title was the second for Grove after winning the Challenge crown in the 2014 season.
Meanwhile, Wall takes a 62 point lead into the final round of the season over Heimgartner, with Davison a further 30 points behind.
Porsche Carrera Cup Australia will head to the streets of Surfers Paradise for the final round of the season in two weeks time, which will also be the final round in which the first generation 991 series 911 GT3 Cup cars will be used in the one-make championship.
