Ricciardello seals record-extending 12th Sports Sedans title

The legend of Tony Ricciardello and his Alfa Romeo GTV grows to new heights after securing a 12th Precision National Sports Sedans championship title as Cameron McLeod completed a clean sweep on debut in the Gold Coast 500 finale.

Despite a crash at the Beach Chicane in race three, Ricciardello had already wrapped up the championship by finishing 15th, second, and17th in the finale.

After a year-long battle with reigning champion Jordan Caruso, the speed, consistency and experience paid off for Ricciardello.

Although Caruso charged from last to second in the finale he was forced to regret the mechanical DNF in race two.

Having taken 12 titles between 1998 and 2023, Ricciardello’s unbelievable tally of National Sports Sedans championships is a record unlikely to be broken.

Here’s how the race unfolded…

Caruso was starting from the back after yesterday’s late race drama for the 2022 champion, and he was expected to charge up the field and challenge the podium.

A tightly packed start had McLeod get a great jump in the chicane over Ricciardello whilst Fogg moved into third.

Jarvis came to a quick stop on track before the rolling start even got going to bring out an early yellow, which would also ruin his chances of finishing second in the championship, with Caruso already up to P12 in a quick start.

Cameron McLeod held off Jordan Caruso to complete a hat-trick of Sports Sedans wins. Image: John Morris

The race went green with 11 minutes left on the clock, and Fogg got a huge jump in the Fastback Mustang to into second, whilst McLeod was a rocket to assert his lead.

Ricciardello then took the spot back in a good battle, whilst Caruso was up into ninth.

Cameron’s Commodore was smoking to pull into the pits, whilst Caruso took sixth over a struggling Currie after he made earlier tyre bundle contact.

McLeod was out to a 2.8sec lead and building, whilst the Alfa had gotten a 5.7sec gap on Fogg.

Ricciardello then had a spin at the beach side chicane which let Fogg and Humfrey through, with the Alfa taking on damage with a big whack into the wall, but it was a good thing his title was already sewn up, whilst Compton also found the wall in the BMW 318i.

It didn’t stop there with Johnson’s Torana tacking plenty of a tyre bundle to bring out a yellow.

Meanwhile Caruso had moved on Humfrey at the hairpin, with the yellow allowing him to be in reach of Fogg, with only a few laps to run.

Meanwhile Shiels Fiat was also finally having a run on track after issues all weekend, and had done well to be in P10 behind Duggan.

In a bad restart for Fogg, the Fastback rubbed the wall off the chicane to allow the Audi A4 into second and two seconds off McLeod, whilst Fogg was keeping hold of third with damage only minor.

On the last lap Caruso was on a flyer, but it was McLeod that put in the fastest lap of the weekend with a 1:11.036, and took the win by 3.470sec over Caruso, with Fog hanging onto third.

Meanwhile, Ricciardello finished down in 17th, but his 12th National Sports Sedans title was secured, with his iconic Alfa Romeo GTV further writing itself into the history books.

Precision National Sports Sedans race 3 results

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The P word also gets a run. The ongoing GT4 saga and a tribute to Allan Horsley.