CLAY OSBORNE has launched his 2026 Porsche Equity-One Carrera Cup Championship campaign in style, powering to his first career race win today at Albert Park.

Driving for TekworkX Motorsport, the young Kiwi Porsche Michelin Junior converted his career-first pole into a stunning victory, fending off both of the recent Carrera Cup Champions to claim a stunning and emphatic victory.

He led home defending champion Dylan O’Keeffe and Harri Jones, in his 100^th Carrera Cup race, to claim the win.

In the Tech Specialist Pro-Am class, Matt Belford carried his strong momentum from the end of the 2025 season into the new year by grabbing the win at his home circuit, with Dean Cook second and Matt Slavin third.

The opening race was held in bright, sunny conditions and in front of a massive Albert Park Thursday crowd.

Osborne made the best start from pole and led the field into turn one, all 28 starters making it through the opening sequence of Albert Park’s bends.

The battling behind was furious as Dylan O’Keeffe – who jumped to second from the start – David Russell and Harri Jones battled for the minors, Jones slipping past Russell at turn 11 on lap two.

The Safety Car was called after two laps of racing when Dean Fiore’s car stopped at turn six.

The race restarted with 12 minutes to go, Osborne leading the field back to green with a well-judged restart that saw him gap O’Keeffe and Jones, while Russell fell under pressure from a flying Marcus Amand, who was already up four spots from his starting position.

The Finn would slip past Russell, to be followed through by Glen Wood at the same corner, before going out after the leading trio.

Though he caught them, the quartet remained evenly spaced throughout the remainder of the race until the final lap, when Amand closed on Jones and Wood subsequently closed on them both.

Amand attacked at turn 11 on the final lap though Jones’ defence was strong enough to hold out the reigning French champion.

Out front, Osborne was clear of the battling to record his maiden Carrera Cup race win in his 30^th race start having fended off more than 450 race’s worth of experience behind him.

O’Keeffe kicked off his title defence in style with a strong second while Jones’ top-three finish came in his 100^th Carrera Cup race.

Wood closed on the leaders at the end to finish fourth, with David Russell, Aaron Love, Lockie Bloxsom and Max Geoghegan, who claimed a top-10 finish on his Carrera Cup debut.

The young Queenslander was the top Carrera Cup rookie in race one, with Jake Santalucia 12^th and Ryan Casha 13^th.

In the Tech Specialist Pro-Am class, Matt Belford claimed an emphatic victory after fending off early pressure from defending champion, Rodney Jane.

Jane had run second for a majority of the race before late contact with Team Porsche New Zealand’s Tom Bewley turned the Bob Jane T-Marts car around at turn four, the home-town hero dropping off the podium and out of the race with only a few laps left to run.

The beneficiary there was Dean Cook – who ensured the Dexion GWR / RAM team scored a pair of seconds in race one – while Matt Slavin fended off a fast-finishing Jacque Jarjo to complete the class podium, Brett Boulton rounding out the top five.

Following a massive opening day that included practice, qualifying and the opening 30-minute race, the Carrera Cup grid has a more relaxed program tomorrow with one race planned for 6:30pm local time.

That race will be live on Fox Sports and Kayo in Australia.