Young gun Jaxon Evans has scored his maiden Porsche Carrera Cup Australia round win at Hidden Valley Raceway with victory in all three Darwin races, while two race wins for Sam Shahin on Sunday handed the South Australian the TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge round honours.
Following Evans’ impressive race one victory, the 20-year-old led from the start of race two, keeping Alex Davison and David Wall at bay until the chequered flag.
Evans repeated the feat in the final race of the weekend, leading from the start and again holding off Davison to become the third driver to claim a clean sweep at Hidden Valley Raceway, following Davison’s and David Reynolds’ efforts in 2004 and 2007, respectively.
“Getting my first race win yesterday was pretty special but to continue that success with a clean sweep today is even better,” said Evans.
“It was my first time here and I wasn’t sure how I’d go so to come up here and keep drivers like David Wall and Alex Davison at bay for all three races was pretty special. I have massive respect for those drivers so to keep them behind me and take the round win is awesome; I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
Third in race one and two second places on Sunday handed Davison second for the round from new series points leader David Wall, who added two third place results to his second place on Saturday.
Dylan O’Keeffe and James Abela continued their impressive pace on Sunday; the duo placed fourth and fifth in race two, while Andre Heimgartner recovered from a horror start to the weekend following a Friday practice accident to finish with a fourth place result in race three.
The TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge continued to provide on-track highlights for the Darwin round.
Shahin, following his third place finish in race one, had an impressive Sunday performance, taking the class win in the final two races of the weekend, handing him the class round win on his debut as a single-driver entry.
“This is absolutely surreal. I have the utmost respect for every driver on the Carrera Cup grid and I’m honoured to just be standing amongst them, so to be on the podium with a class win is absolutely brilliant,” said Shahin.
“I’m more and more comfortable in the car and I’m looking forward to a few more rounds in Carrera Cup. I’m unfortunately going to miss Sepang – I’m going overseas on a family holiday – but hopefully I can re-join the championship for more thrilling racing later in the season.”
Tim Miles was second for the round in class; the Sydneysider sustained damage and failed to finish race two after contact with Stephen Grove on the final corner of the final lap. Meanwhile Grove, who failed to finish race three after a radiator hose came loose, placed third for the round and retains the lead of the Challenge standings over Marc Cini, who was racing in Porsche Carrera Cup France this weekend at Le Mans, and Shahin in third place in the class standings.
Wall is now 40 points clear at the top of the Carrera Cup outright standings from Heimgartner, with Davison reducing his margin to the top spot over the weekend, now 97 points from the standings leader.
Porsche Carrera Cup Australia will now travel to Malaysia for its next round at the Sepang International Circuit for the Australian championship’s first ever international round, to be held on July 21-23, 2017.
