HARRI JONES stormed to the 28th win of his storied Porsche Equity-One Carrera Cup Australia career on Sunday in Darwin, however it was New Zealander Clay Osborne who secured the round victory – his first in the championship.
Osborne chased Jones throughout Sunday’s second, 45-minute race of the weekend but ultimately settled for second behind the two-time champion in the knowledge that he would win the round by finishing in that position.
It was Osborne’s first round win in his brief Carrera Cup career, the Kiwi entering just his second full-time season and his first with TekworkX Motorsport.
Jones was at his imperious best in race two and despite persistent pressure was unflappable throughout to claim the win.
While he finished second for the round, it did return him to the pointy-end of the Equity-One Carrera Cup Australia Championship following two of the scheduled seven rounds.
Osborne had run fourth in the early stages with Marco Giltrap and Aaron Love in front of the New Zealander in the early stages, before Love launched a move down the inside of the Team Porsche NZ entry at turn one on the 10th lap.
Both ran wide, allowing Osborne to sneak through and set out after Jones, who by that point led the race by 1.5 seconds.
The Kiwi broke the Hidden Valley lap record several times in his pursuit but once he got to 0.5 seconds behind the McElrea car it was there he stayed.
Giltrap recovered to third position in a strong weekend while a much-improved Dylan O’Keeffe was fifth aboard his Dexion / RAM Motorsport entry. Tom Bewley set another PB in fifth place for the Team Porsche NZ entry while Aaron Love’s sixth was good enough to secure him in third position overall for the round – his 11th in his Porsche career.
An outstanding seventh in just his second Carrera Cup race was Daniel Quimby, who led home a feisty battle pack that included Jake Santalucia, Lachlan Bloxsom, David Russell – who recovered from a fast spin at turn five following contact with Aaron Love – and Glen Wood in 10th.
The TechSpecialist Pro-Am battle was intense for the second time in as many days and saw DNA Autosport’s Jacque Jarjo claim his second successive victory.
Race two was a near carbon copy of the first for Jarjo who built an early lead before facing a challenge from former champion Liam Talbot in the closing stages; Jarjo once again prevailing in the battle to sweep the round.
His clean sweep of Darwin was not only his first round win in Carrera Cup but also sees him close to within a tiny margin of the Pro-Am lead heading towards round three.
Liam Talbot’s return to the championship resulted in him finishing second for the round while Matt Belford, last year’s Darwin winner, was third.
The next round of the Porsche Equity-One Carrera Cup Australia Championship will see the category return to Queensland Raceway in Ipswich on 21-23 August.
