Marco Giltrap has come home a commendable fourth in a busy Porsche Carrera Cup Australia opener that finished behind the Safety Car at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Championship contenders Dale Wood and Jackson Walls failed to finish through separate incidents, handing the advantage to series leader Harri Jones, who won from Dylan O’Keeffe and David Russell.
Giltrap’s best result of the 2024 season followed a strong qualifying outing on Saturday morning, during which the Kiwi was fifth fastest.
Jones claimed pole ahead of O’Keeffe, Walls and Wood, while Fabian Coulthard qualified the Porsche Centre Melbourne #3 in seventh.
Giltrap got a good launch to go with the front-runners in this evening’s sole outing and was sixth exiting Turn 1, with Jones retaining the lead ahead of O’Keeffe.
Coulthard lost ground through the opening corner when he was run wide and onto the grass, which dropped him out of the top ten.
Wood took damage on Lap 1 and returned to the pit lane to retire, elevating the Team Porsche New Zealand/ EBM entry back into the top five, directly behind Walls.
Up front, Jones built a steady advantage over the field over the opening laps, while O’Keeffe also pulled clear of Russell, who sat over five seconds behind with seven minutes remaining.
Giltrap took fourth off Walls shortly after to sit just one place and 1.6 seconds off the podium. He ate into Russell’s advantage over the following laps and was on the rear of the TekworkX Motorsport entering the final four minutes.
A maiden podium was on the cards for the Kiwi, but his charge was cut short when Walls skidded off at Turn 1 with two and a half minutes remaining, having battled with a slow puncture.
The race did not resume, and Jones took his fourth consecutive win to extend his championship lead. O’Keeffe was second, and Russell third.
Coulthard recovered for 11th behind Garth Tander, who worked forward from the rear of the field after a qualifying collision with Marcos Flack.
The Porsche Carrera Cup returns for Race 2 at 12.35 pm NZST on Sunday, before the finale at 4.55 pm.
All races will be broadcast live on Sky Sport.
Header Image: Porsche Motorsport Australia
