DYLAN O’KEEFFE has won his first Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia race in a year after a jumped-start penalty for Callum Hedge denied the young Kiwi race one success at Sandown.
Hedge won the start and the subsequent drag race into turn one over polesitter O’Keeffe, however officials deemed the start to be too good and penalised the Team Porsche NZ driver five seconds for the infringement.
That allowed O’Keeffe and McElrea young gun Bayley Hall to settle in behind the New Zealander with the trio running line astern to the line in that order.
The penalty dropped Hedge to third, while O’Keeffe claimed his first win since Sandown last year and the third of his Carrera Cup Career.
Hall’s second position represented his best ever Carrera Cup race, eclipsing his previous best of sixth position comfortably.
Hedge’s third – coupled with Jackson Walls’ run to tenth position – saw him extend both his championship lead and his margin in the critical Michelin Junior Championship ranks heading into race two this afternoon.
David Russell and Dale Wood completed the top five, with the latter also moving to third in the championship by virtue of a non-finish from TekworkX star Max Vidau, who hit the wall on the exit of turn three on the second lap.
A puncture in a rear tyre was determined to be the cause of the accident that saw the Tyrepower driver limp back to the lane but retire the car.
Fabian Coulthard, David Wall, Simon Fallon, Christian Pancione and Jackson Walls completed the top-10.
In SP Tools Pro-Am, Sam Shahin led confidently to another race win to build his championship lead.
He led home Dean Cook and Liam Talbot in a wild Pro-Am affair that saw intense battling for the minor steps on the class podium throughout the 16-lap affair.
Matt Belford and Tim Miles survived a late moment at turn one to finish fourth and fifth, respectively, while Rodney Jane ran strongly early in the race before he was caught up in an incident and dropped down the order.
Adrian Flack had a slow start but recovered well before he too was involved in a spin, dropping him back down through the field by race’s end.
Race 2 will be the next instalment of the Enduro Cup series on Saturday afternoon, with live coverage on Fox Sports 506, Kayo and Sky Sport NZ.