Nash Morris has dominated his Porsche debut, leading a TekworkX Motorsport 1-2 in the opening race of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Morris and teammate and polesitter Aron Shields got an even launch off the front row and were side-by-side for the opening four corners in a great exchange, Morris eventually gaining the upper hand after hanging tough around the outside of turn two.
Morris and Shields proceeded to march away from the chasing pack over the course of the thirteen lap journey, gaining over ten seconds on Marcos Flack who finished third on road.
Morris’ win came on his one-make Porsche debut and adds to prior success in other categories including Super3 and Trans Am.
While he finished third on the road, Flack’s race was over before it had ever really begun – a five second penalty for creeping outside of his grid box whilst the grid was forming demoting the Sonic driver from third to eleventh in the final results.
After Flack’s post-race penalty was applied, Lachlan Bloxsom was promoted to third in the Bloxsom Team Navy entry, a position sealed with a racy move on Ronan Murphy at turn five on lap seven.
Sonic’s Murphy finished fourth, with Marco Giltrap completing the top five for Team Porsche New Zealand/EBM.
There was plenty of drama throughout the race, as first Class B runner Lachlan Harburg and Pro-Am competitor Eric Constantinidis had contact on the second lap, Harburg eventually retiring due to the damage sustained.
Constantinidis’ night wouldn’t get any better following a second incident, this this time Pro-Am runner Lachlan Gilksten, breaking the right front suspension on his Upto11 Motorsport entry and forcing him out of the race.
A spin at turn 12 from West Aussie young gun Caleb Sumich was the only other notable incident from an otherwise clean display of racing from the 30-strong field.
Pro-Am was won by AGAS National’s Adrian Flack in seventh outright, helped by Sam Shahin having a wild off at turn one on lap eleven, easing the pressure on Flack.
Matt Slavin finished second in class, his best-yet result in PMSC competition. He was followed home by Andrew Goldie, who spent much of his race battling with the Class B winner – Car Mods Australia’s Bradley Carr who finished seventeenth outright.
Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge returns to the track for two more races tomorrow at 10:10am and 1:35pm.
Both races will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 506 and Kayo Sports.