Peter Vodanovich and Rowan Shepherd have snared podium finishes in a chaotic final race around Mount Panorama in the second round of the carsales TCR Australia SimRacing Series.
Dylan O’Keeffe and Luke King would ultimately share the spoils in the two races, the former cruising to an unchallenged Race One victory after claiming the lead off the line.
Ben Bargwanna had claimed pole position earlier in the evening but was swamped by O’Keeffe and Honda pilot John Martin off the line after a sluggish start. The duo crossing the line in formation at the conclusion of the nine-lap affair.
Bargwanna would hang on to third while Toyota 86 regular Vodanovich would end up the highest placed Kiwi in sixth.
But it would be the evening’s second race that would dish out the wild results in a reverse grid barnburner.
Series debutant Jay Hanson would convert his pole position start into the lead on the run down Mountain Straight.
Further back and incumbent TCR Australia champion Will Brown collected the wall at Skyline, allowing Hanson to build a comfortable margin while hindering the progress of a hard-charging Vodanovich and Shepherd.
On his second tour Shepherd would attempt to out-drag Brown on the run into Turn 2 only for the HMO Customer Racing entry to muscle the Kiwi into the wall, falling back to fifth.
The race then ignited when race leader Hanson tagged the inside wall at the dipper, pinballing himself across the track and allowing a fortunate King to leapfrog himself from fourth into the lead.
Vodanovich would put some late-race pressure on King but couldn’t muster a successful overtake, crossing the line 0.6s adrift of the leader.
Shepherd would claim his maiden series podium ahead of Bargwanna would muster a move on the final lap at Turn 2 on ex-Supercar journeyman Tony D’Alberto who would also relinquish yet another position in the dying stages to O’Keeffe who maintains his points lead.
“It was a lot of fun out there,” said King after his victory.
”The race was a real scrap right from the start. I knew that I had to get past Jay, but I knew that our pace was good.
“I was doing 360s across the top of the hill. I can’t believe I got the win in the end. I have no idea how I was in the lead of the race, but that’s how luck plays out sometimes.”
Round 3 of the championship will occur on July 15 at Sydney Motorsport Park.
