OSCAR TARGETT has opened his 2024 account in style, fending off a spirited challenge from Hamish Fitzsimmons to claim the opening race in the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia season at Phillip Island.

Targett held off his TekworkX Racing rival throughout the race distance to take the win, with Clay Osborne finishing third.

RESULTS: https://www.porschesprintchallenge.com.au/results/

Ramu Farrell scored victory in the Pro-Am class while Jacque Jarjo took the Class B win in Race 1 of the new season.

The Grove Racing Junior / Earl Bamber Motorsport teenager started from pole and converted his start into an early lead, fending off Fitzsimmons on the opening lap before a Safety Car was called early.

He then judged the restart to perfection and led his Porsche Michelin Junior rival home to record a third career Sprint Challenge race win.

Fitzsimmons challenged Targett on the race start and then the restart before managing his race to finish second, while Clay Osborne was strong to record his best ever Sprint Challenge finish, in just his third round start.

EBM, TekworkX and McElrea completed the podium sweep today.

Brock Gilchrist charged his way to fourth position in the Team Porsche NZ entry, making a late move on Conor Somers’ Sonic Entry late in the race.

He was followed through by Caleb Sumich, who capitalised on a superb start to charge his way to fifth and his best ever Sprint Challenge race finish.

Somers finished sixth on his Porsche debut, finishing ahead of his teammate Jake Santalucia who was seventh.

Ninth was Aron Shields, who was stuck in the bottom half of the top 10 after his team was forced to change engines aboard his DNA Autosport entry overnight.

Ramu Farrell won the Pro-Am Class and finished an outstanding eighth outright in his Jones Motorsport #888 entry.

Farrell had struggled with niggling mechanical issues aboard his car in the leadup to the race however ran in the top 10 consistently throughout the 8-lap distance.

He claimed the Pro-Am class ahead of Daniel Stutterd – who made it a pair of seconds for TekworkX Motorsport – and Lachlan Harburg.

Class B went the way of Jacque Jarjo, who finished 14th outright.

The race was not drama-free with a start-line incident claiming two of McElrea Racing’s chargers, including Ayrton Hodson and Brett Boulton, both cars forced out of the race.

Later on the opening lap, Brad Carr was clipped after spinning at turn four, the hit damaging his radiator and forcing a recovery.

All four cars failed to finish however are expected to race tomorrow.

Sunday’s busy program will see the Jim Richards Endurance Championship commence with a 45-mintue enduro in the morning, to be followed by a second sprint race later in the Shannons SpeedSeries program at Phillip Island – the latter race to be shown live on 7plus.