Tamasi fends off Shiels as Ingram charges to podium

Steven Tamasi blazed away after an early battle with Brad Shiels, while Peter Ingram produced an important comeback in the opening Precision National Sport Sedan Series race at Sydney.

Despite fighting for the lead in the opening laps, once Tamasi cleared local Shiels, the Holden blazed into the distance and took a big 9.6s win.

Despite starting from the back after mechanical gremlins forced him to miss qualifying, championship leader Peter Ingram flew to third in a vital drive to his title chances.

Humphrey was out of action due to his heavy qualifying crash on Friday.

Daniel Crompton joined him on the sidelines having stopped on the grid at the start of the warmup lap.

This meant the Ford Mustang was unable to start from fifth on the grid, which caused an extra formation lap and a scrappy rolling start.

Tamasi and Shiels went side by side through the fast Turn 1 and the Fiat had to concede on the outside.

However, this allowed Shiels set-up a bold switch back down the inside of Turn 2 and snatch the lead.

Further back Taunton up three spots to fourth, while Peter Ingram’s charge had begun as he made 10 spots to surge into the top 10 by the end of the opening lap.

Peter Ingram flew to third in an impressive drive. Image: MPix Photography

The Mazda continued picking off his rivals to secure sixth on Lap 2, but faced a 4s gap to Jarvis.

Ben Purtell had battles at Turn 5 and this resulted in being spun by Chris Jackson.

Despite Shiels’ aggressive opening lap, the fight for the lead had not settled down with Tamasi on his tail.

The Holden Calibra driver then fired a fierce response down the inside of the fast Turn 1 to snatch back the lead at the start of Lap 3.

Boosted by the move, Tamasi then set the fastest lap of the race and emerged with a 2.6s advantage by the end of the lap.

By Lap 4 Peter Ingram had caught Jarvis and also picked off Taunton to rise to fourth.

He then faced a 5s deficit to third placed Lacey but only needed two laps to catch the back of the MARC and cruised past at Turn 1 to complete the charge to the podium.

Lacey then found himself on the defence to Matt Ingram and was unable to defend fourth.

Glenn Pro was a late out with mechanical dramas.

Whilst there was plenty of action behind him, Tamasi ended up charging to a commanding 9s win.

The next Sport Sedans race is at 15.50 AEST.

Image: MPix Photography

Precision National Sport Sedan Series Sydney Race 1 results

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