Giltrap races to early Porsche Sprint Challenge ascendency

By Josh Nevett

Kiwi teenager Marco Giltrap starred in the opening round of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia Series at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, taking an early season lead with two race wins.

Giltrap rose from fourth on the starting grid to open his account in Race 1 of the new season, avoiding trouble as young 17-year-old Marcos Flack was unable to capitalise on his brilliant pole position on debut in the 10-lap sprint – making the feat more impressive, was that it was Flack’s first time racing out of open-wheelers after two years of competing in Europe.

The Team Porsche NZ/EBM import’s only blemish was a second-place finish in Race 2, as Aron Shields denied the youngster a clean sweep in the second sprint of the day.

Race 3, the 25-lap Jim Richards Enduro opener, saw Giltrap return to the top of the podium steps with a tense victory.

The lead changed hands multiple times between Giltrap and Harrison Goodman, but the former came out on top, leading Ronan Murphy and Goodman to the line.

As a result, the top three for the weekend were Giltrap, Shields and Goodman.

“I’ve finished with the round win and a couple of race wins – can’t get a much better stuff than that,” Giltrap said.

“We’re pretty sure we had some pretty good pace coming into the weekend. There’s still some room for improvement as always, but that third rice was pretty hectic. I mean, it was a long one.

“There’s a bit of tyre conservation and then the traffic got involved and we sort of slipped back to second.

“Ultimately, we knew we had the pace towards the end of the race and we kept strong and ultimately, we came on top.”

Sam Shahin kicked off his campaign in style with a hat-trick of wins in the Pro-Am class, while Lachlan Harburg picked up from where he left off from last year by triumphing in Class B.

The next round of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia Series will be held at Queensland Raceway alongside the Australian Superbike Championship from April 28-30.

AUTO ACTION, Australia’s independent voice of motorsport