Fabian Coulthard and Shane van Gisbergen have started the weekend strong at Phillip Island, while Kaleb Ngatoa had a tough start to the weekend.
GT World Challange Australia
The 888 entry that van Gisbergen shares with Prince Jefri Ibrahim started the first race of the weekend from 12th, with Prince Ibrahim behind the wheel for the opening stint.
The safety car made an early appearance coming out just over 10 minutes into the 60-minute race, by that point Prince Ibrahim had moved through he field to ninth.
The team’s charge through the field continued after the pit stops with van Gisbergen behind the wheel climbing to third, he would have a late race battle with fellow Supercars driver David Reynolds.
Despite Reynolds’ efforts, the Kiwi would hold on to finish on the final step of the podium.
Chaz Mostert and co-driver Liam Talbot took the race win ahead of Christopher Mies and Yasser Shahin in second.
S5000
Kaleb Ngatoa struggled in the first S5000 race of the weekend, starting from the second row of the grid he dropped back in the pack early on after struggling at the race start.
The Kiwi would drop another position on lap 7 when he ran wide, going off track, though he was able to recover rejoining eighth, where he would remain at the end of the race.
Ngatoa again started from the second row of the grid in race two, though he would drop back in the pack through the early laps.
The 20-year-old had a wild moment at the final corner, when he ran wide over the exit curb, though he held onto position to cross the line in seventh.
James Golding won the opening race of the weekend, while Tim Macrow took the second race win.
TCR Australia
Fabian Coulthard ended qualifying third on the timesheets but was dropped back to ninth after he brought out the red flag that would end the session.
Coulthard made progress through the field, moving into seventh by the end of the second lap, before making the most of other people’s issues to sit fourth by the midpoint of the race.
The Kiwi would finish the race in fourth narrowly missing out on his first podium result in the series. Jay Hanson took the race win ahead of Jordan Cox and Dylan O’Keeffe
All three championships will be back out on track for more racing on Sunday, with two races for TCR Australia and one each for GT World Challenge Australia and S5000.
Main image: Edge Photographics
