Jones’ streak hits some Walls
Harri Jones’ run of Porsche Carrera Cup Australia wins is over after Jackson Walls returned to the category with a splash at Albert Park.
In a round full of drama that produced three different winners, Walls took the honours from Dylan O’Keeffe and Marcos Flack.
This ensured Jones had to settle for fourth, but he still retains the points lead.
The weekend started in very familiar fashion with the #1 Jones Motorsport 991 taking pole by two tenths and converting that into victory.
But the opener did not go entirely to plan for the reigning champion.
Jones led 11 of the 12 laps, but a big crash for Matt Slavin coming out of Turn 2 set up a one-lap dash.
This saw Jones renew his rivalry with former SuperCup rival Alessandro Ghiretti and they came to blows.
Ghiretti made an aggressive move at the second turn to wrestle the lead and took the chequered flag, however, he received a 5s penalty for weaving when the Safety Car lights were out.
This allowed Jones to make it four from four with O’Keeffe and Walls promoted to the podium as Ghiretti fell to seventh.
Rookie Oscar Targett was in contention for a top 10, but spun on the final lap.
Pro Am went to Sam Shahin from Rodney Jane.
The Friday evening sprint turned into a dramatic affair.
Jones again led early, controlling the first six laps ahead of Walls, only for another restart to catch him out.
This time Jones went off himself at the opening turn in an uncharacteristic mistake, dropping the #1 down to seventh.
This allowed Walls to take over proceedings and he held off Bayley Hall to take an important win ahead of Flack, while Jane survived the race to take Pro Am.
There was plenty of drama with seven cars failing to finish including Max Vidau and Shahin, who were caught in some Lap 6 craziness.
French EMA Motorsports driver Ghiretti was determined to leave Albert Park with some success and he left his mark in the final race.
The race was an enthralling affair with O’Keeffe taking the lead from Jones at Turn 1, but they carried on arguing throughout the first lap.
Behind them Jones settled in third ahead of Ghiretti, but the pace of the #91 soon proved to be significant in the heat.
After picking off Jones on Lap 4, he only needed another three laps to snatch second from Walls.
This set up an intriguing battle for the lead between O’Keeffe and Ghiretti, but ultimately the pace of the Frenchman proved too strong.
He pulled off a smart move through the double right handers of Turns 11 and 12 and did not look back.
O’Keeffe consolidated second and Walls locked down third, which was enough to take the round win.
There was late drama with Jones and Hall wrestling for sixth and the #1 won out as Hall dropped to 12th.
Despite Shahin winning Pro Am, Dean Cook was the only retirement on the opening lap.
Carrera Cup returns at the Darwin Triple Crown on June 20-22.
Image: Rebecca Hind Revved Photography
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