GARRY’S SYDNEY SHANNONS NATIONALS WRAP – SATURDAY

Bob Pearson starred in the first two Australian Production Car Series races – Photo: Nathan Wong

BOB PEARSON has been the star in the first half of round three of the Australian Production Car Series at Sydney Motorsport Park, the feature category of the Shannons Nationals fourth round.

The veteran pulled off a masterly pit stop and managed delaminating front tyres on his Mitsubishi EVO X RS, to beat Mark Eddy (Audi TT RS) by 33.4 seconds and then, despite a 5s start line penalty, again beat Eddy in race two, this time by 9s.

A tyre puncture cost Grant and Iain Sherrin third in race one as their BMW M4 limped to the line, surrendering the spot Dimitri Agathos (Subaru Impreza WRX STi). Similarly, Rod Salmon and Nathan Antunes in the Mercedes A45 crawled to the line, losing fifth to Leigh Burges (EVO 9).

The Sherrins suffered a tyre failure in the second race which took them out of the race lead and had them ultimately finish in fifth spot behind third-placed Salmon and Lachlan Gibbons (Subaru).

Mark Laucke charged through to win in the Australian Prototype Series – Photo: Nathan Wong

STARTING OUT of position four was no hindrance for Mark Laucke to take out race one of the third round of the Australian Prototype Series.

He missed out on a late shot at pole in his West WX10 due to a red flag situation, but bounce back to grab an early lead, lose it to Michael Shaw (Radical SR3) for a period and then regather for a narrow win.

Third went to Gerrit Ruff (West WR1000) clear of a race-long dice between the Radicals driven by Peter Paddon and Chris Sutton. Pole sitter Jason Makris (WX10) had a gear selector failure in the early laps and limped home 14th.

Kim Burke (Radical SR3RSX) retired with a dead engine while John-Paul Drake (WX10) finished sixth ahead of Mark Short (Prince), Terry Peovitis (F1K), Phil Hughes (SR3) and Jonathon Stoeckel (WR1000).

Jordan Love got the endurance race win in Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge – Photo: Nathan Wong

JORDAN LOVE didn’t get the best start but did come through to win the second round of the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy, race one of round four of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge.

From pole position Love trailed fellow Professional Class driver Brenton Grove and Elite Class’ Anthony Gilbertson through turn one as Phil Morriss hit the pit wall just after the control line.

After a four-lap safety car Love displaced Gilbertson and grabbed the lead he would hold to the end two laps later. Just over half distance in the 30-lapper Sam Shahin would also pass Gilbertson to cross the line 4.9 seconds ahead but a 5s jump start penalty gave Elite Class honours to Gilbertson.

John Morriss was next across the line but he too had a 5s start line infringement added, which put him behind Brett Boulton while John Steffensen was seventh, not affected by his 5s penalty for overlapping on the restart. Behind Shane Barwood, David Greig took out the Class B win.

Race start as the Veloce Alfa Series joins the Shannons Nationals in Sydney – Photo: Nathan Wong

THE OPENING race of round three of the Veloce Alfa Series was led from lights-out right through to the finish by Enzo Piazza in his Nuovo B Class (front wheel drive and non-conforming) Alfa GTV6 after starting out of pole position.

Sharing the front row was the Classio A (Group S) Alfetta Guilia driven by Tony Karanfilovski which had a bad start and dropped to ninth early before recovering to fifth.

Doug Selwood who had been fastest throughout practice on Friday, started his Nuovo A Class (2.5-3.0-litre 1981-87) seventh and worked his way to second ahead of David Capraro (NA Giuietta) and Frank Carigliano (NB GTV6).

Peter Paddon returned to the winners’ circle in Radical Australia Cup – Photo: Nathan Wong

PETER PADDON returned to the winners’ circle in Radical Australia Cup with a win in race one at the fourth round, making it six victories from seven starts. Michael Shaw was the early race leader, only surrendering the front running position as his compulsory pitstop.

Phil Anseline had a brief spell in front before Paddon took over and from there was never headed. Shaw was closing rapidly on the race leader after being gifted second spot when Oliver Smith spun late in the race, and finished 0.34s adrift of the winner after 50mins of racing.

We’ll have a full wrap of the Shannons National action from Sydney Motorsport Park in the next issue of Auto Action, on sale Thursday. In the meantime, follow us on social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the latest updates across the weekend.