King fights off Jones for debut Bathurst win

Harry King and Harry Jones were simply a class ahead of the field in Race 1 of the Porsche Carrera Cup, with King also a step ahead of his Lechner teammate.

The Mobil 1 Supercup Lechner Racing teammate’s really showed the miles that they had in the tank over the rest of the Porsche GT3 drivers, leaving behind a highly regarded field of drivers, with King also becoming the first British driver to win a Carrera Cup Australia race.

But Jones was left to rue a sluggish start, which gave the #19 Porsche the impetus to take an eventual 0.493 win in a close affair. And whilst he was threatened, he showed his class in his first Bathurst outing.

Coming in a distant third (+13.420) was Kiwi Journeyman Chris Van Der Drift, taking O’Keeffe late who’s continuing his late season resurgence, but neither were a match for the returning Aussie and the Brit, whilst Liam Talbot was also a comfortable winner in the Pro Am.

King took victoy over his Lechner teammate on his Bathurst debut. Image: EDGE Photographics

Jones and King started out on the front row with King getting the better of him, with O’Keefe and Van Der Drift moving through over Jones early, with the reigning champion getting a slow start.

King really shot off with the Brit achieving a healthy lead, whilst talented McElrea driver Bayley Hall was dragged off the straight via a truck with front wheel damage after making contact with David Wall off the starting line. The race stayed green.

Jones had moved back into P2 by the second lap but was two seconds back.

Walls had made up some big spots early, moving from 11th to sixth as he tried to gain some valuable points to close the gap on absent championship leader Callum Hedge.

With it being King’s first race meet at Bathurst, he’d have to pull out all his experience to hold off Jones, who was trailing back tenths on the British driver, whilst Jones had three seconds on O’Keeffe.

Jones gave chase in vain on King, taking second on his return to the Mountain. EDGE Photography

By lap 5 he’d got it under one second and was starting to apply some pressure, whilst O’Keeffe had come under the gun from the Kiwi-sub in the Hedge car.

The gap to the front two had grown to eight seconds at the halfway point, whilst Jones was really on the tail of King and setting lap records in his pursuit.

The fight for third was still raging between the #88 and #77, whilst in the Pro Am, Liam Talbot was in P16 and leading that comfortably from Flack and Shahin.

Jones had four laps in which to reel in King, but the Brit was driving such a sure race under pressure that it was looking improbable though close.

The podium was still far from sure, and it also gave Coulthard a sniff in P5 as they squabbled for third, whilst Walls was also tight on him.

Jones kept coming on the last lap but was not able to pull close enough as the two drivers locked up a front row start for tomorrow’s Race 2 at 15:15pm.

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