Russell masters big wet

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: April 20, 2024

David Russell walked on water to win the first Porsche Carrera Cup Australia race held on New Zealand soil.

After a Safety Car start, drivers had to contend with extremely wet weather and poor visibility around the twisty Taupo circuit.

Despite a valiant drive from Angelo Mouzouris, Russell was untroubled in the tough conditions and controlled all 12 laps to win by 0.9s.

Mouzouris jumped Harri Jones to snare second as Pro Am went to Adrian Flack.

After four minutes behind the Safety Car, the field was finally set free with just 11 minutes of racing before the chequered flag.

Pole man David Russell led away with Harri Jones having a look on the inside as Mouzouris settled into third with little position change.

Mouzouris made the first move by pouncing down the inside of Jones at the double right hander of turns 4 and 5 to snatch second.

Nash Morris and Ryder Quinn had a hairy moment fighting for fifth side by side entering turn 11.

Russell nailed the opening lap and was able to pull a second advantage on the rest of the field.

A tense battle developed between veterans Dale Wood and Fabian Coulthard for seventh.

The pair raised eyebrows with a number of door to door moments until a mistake from the Kiwi at turn 11, took the pressure off Wood.

But this only proved to be momentarily as a bigger moment for Wood running wide at turn 9 allowed Coulthard to finally snatch the position.

The fight for the lead intensified inside the final three minutes as Mouzouris cut Russell’s lead to under a second.

Sonic teammate Marcos Flack had a massive moment and spun into the gravel.

Towards the end of the race Wood found himself under pressure from Marco Giltrap and cracked.

The #992 spun on his own in front of Giltrap and despite contact, both cars carried on with the former Supercars driver dropping from ninth to 114th.

Russell completed his composed drive in the wet to take a first Carrera Cup win since 2015.

Carrera Cup returns for race 2 at 07.15 AEST Sunday morning.

Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Taupo Race 1 results

Taupo Super400 schedule (all times AEDT)

Friday, April 19

Practice: 1: C. Mostert 1:26.4937 2: M. Payne +0.0318 3: W. Davison +0.0508

Saturday, April 20

Qualifying Race 7: 1: M. Payne 1:27.9684 2: A. De Pasquale +0.0940 3: C. Mostert +0.1669

Top 10 Shootout: 1: C. Waters 1:34.7415 2: W. Brown +0.5011 3: A. Heimgartner +0.5374

Race 7 (60 laps): 13.05

Sunday, April 21

Qualifying Race 8: 08.45

Top 10 Shootout: 10.25

Race 7 (60 laps): 13.05

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Podcast: We’re going to Taupo… Tow Paw… Whatever. Supercars is back!

After a break that feels like months, the Supercars Championship is back and headed across the ditch to Taupo in the middle of the North Island. And yes, Brodie Kostecki will be there! As will the rain.

Somehow, the rain will also be in China for F1’s return to 中国. Philip Island was stunning on the weekend, just gone, if a little cold, but we chatted about whether Supercars should return to the land of penguins.

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Russell masters big wet

After four minutes behind the Safety Car, the field was finally set free with just 11 minutes of racing before the chequered flag.

Russell nailed the opening lap and was able to pull a second advantage on the rest of the field.

The fight for the lead intensified inside the final three minutes as Mouzouris cut Russell’s lead to under a second.

Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Taupo Race 1 results

Taupo Super400 schedule (all times AEDT)

Don’t forget the latest issue of the free digital version of Auto Action is out now!

Podcast: We’re going to Taupo… Tow Paw… Whatever. Supercars is back!

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