Team Porsche New Zealand’s Marco Giltrap rose to eleventh in the Porche Carrera Cup Australia standings entering the winter break following a trio of top-ten finishes at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Following a season-best fourth in Saturday’s opener, the Kiwi finished sixth in Sunday morning’s enduro and eighth in the final Sprint to end the round fourth, his best result of the season.
The strong performance leaves the Kiwi charger just 10 points outside the top 10 in a competitive mid-table battle.
Fabian Coulthard took two podiums on the final day of the Sydney SuperNight but had the latter stripped following a five-second post-race penalty, which relegated him to sixth.
The 13-time Supercars Championship race winner sits eighth in the standings following results of eleventh, third and sixth in the latest round.
2022 Carrera Cup Champion Harri Jones took his second clean sweep in as many rounds, dominating proceedings to enter the two-month break with a 145-point championship lead.
Jones has won eight of this season’s 12 races.
Having won on Saturday, the 25-year-old Queenslander led the field to green in Sunday’s Endurance Cup race, holding his advantage early for a comprehensive lights-to-flag victory.
Jackson Walls, Jones’s closest rival in the championship, was never more than three seconds off the lead for second place and crossed the line 10 seconds ahead of Coulthard, who completed the podium.
The Kiwi BWT driver slipped past Race 2 runner-up Dylan O’Keeffe mid-race following a lengthy battle to secure his first top-three finish since the Gold Coast last year.
David Russell and Giltrap battled for much of the race for fifth, with the former prevailing.
Jones went lights-to-flag again in Race 3 for his sixth win on the trot, leading home O’Keeffe.
The two leaders finished well ahead of the chasing pack, which included a busy three-car battle for the final spot in the top three that went to Coulthard.
The Kiwi had battled with his compatriot Giltrap over early proceedings and then with Russell. He passed the latter for the final spot on the podium; however, a five-second penalty for a driving infringement related to the battle with Giltrap ultimately saw the BWT Porsche drop to sixth in the final standings.
Giltrap held on for eighth for his third consecutive top-ten.
The Porsche Carrera Cup returns in support of the Sandown 500 on September 13-15 before the Bathurst 1000 on October 10-13.
Header Image: Porsche Motorsport Australia
