Clay Osborne turned a front-row start to victory in the opening race of Round 2 of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia at The Bend.
Team Porsche New Zealand’s pole-sitter Brock Gilchrist finished third, while Ayrton Hodson climbed from ninth to finish seventh.
Osborne got an excellent launch off the front row and led the field uphill into Turn 1, beating Gilchrist into a position he would not lose.
The Safety Car was called early when Hamish Fitzsimmons and Lachy Harburg spun at Turn 5 in the mid-field. The trailing pack parted and avoided the incident.
Caspar Tressider and Andrew Georgiadis then came together, which left the latter stranded at Turn 7 and requiring recovery.
Osborne controlled the restart well, getting a good jump entering the final 10 minutes, while Gilchrist was forced to fend off Oscar Targett for second. The Australian would sneak through for the position at Turn 1 with a few laps remaining.
Targett closed in on the leader as lapped traffic emerged on the final tour but ultimately settled for second, ahead of Gilchrist.
Osborne is the fourth winner in the four races this season, while Targett’s second position gives him the outright championship lead over Gilchrist, with whom he was tied with entering the round.
The 45-minute Jim Richards Enduro race launches Sunday’s proceedings at 10.30 am (NZST) before the final 25-minute sprint race at 3.45 pm.
For New Zealand viewers, Race 3 will be shown live on the SpeedSeries website.
Header Image: Porsche Motorsport Australia
