OSCAR TARGETT and Brock Gilchrist will battle for the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia series in the final round at Sydney Motorsport Park, following a thrilling conclusion to Round 5 of the championship at Symmons Plains.

The pair battled out another hugely entertaining encounter today, continuing the theme of the weekend where the pair were inseparable across the three races.

After trailing early, Targett claimed the race and the round over Gilchrist and Clay Osborne, while Andrew Georgiadis took his first Pro-Am Round victory in style by claiming the third race.

The final sprint was a thriller from the outset as Gilchrist, starting from second, beat Targett into turn one.

The pair were locked together with McElrea’s Clay Osborne in hot pursuit early in the race, the trio pulling away from the remainder of the field.

As he did in race two, Targett launched several attacks on his EBM teammate at turn four and turn six before he finally made a move stick at four, claiming the lead.

Gilchrist had to settle for second, but was chased hard to the line by his Kiwi compatriot Osborne who also set the new lap record in today’s race.

In fact, the new benchmark set on Saturday by Targett was broken by eight drivers in the final race, all taking advantage of the best track conditions of the weekend and relatively fresh Michelin slicks for the final race.

Osborne’s strong finish to the weekend saw him claim third overall in Tasmania by just a single point, thanks to his efforts on Friday to secure his first career pole position award.

Behind the leaders some furious battling unfolded with Ayrton Hodson making early moves to assert his position in fourth.

He was chased all race by teammate Caleb Sumich, while a flying Tyler Greenbury charged from the back of the field to finish sixth – at one point owning the lap record before it was broken later by Osborne.

The Sonic duo of Jake Santalucia and Conor Somers were next, at one point battling for position as the former was another to charge his way through from the back of the field after enduring a broken axle in race two. They were followed home by Aron Shields and Ben Taylor, who completed the top-10.

Andrew Georgiadis’ pathway to the Pro-Am win was made slightly simpler when closest rival, and race two winner, Eric Constantinidis limped back to pit lane on the formation lap with a broken axle on his Area Cloud & Cyber Security entry.

Georgiadis was then chased to the line by John Papantoniou – finishing in that order for both race and round – with Jonathan Glicksten surviving an off at turn six to secure third for the race and the round.

It was his first round win in Sprint Challenge competition and the first in Pro-Am for his DNA Racing team. 

With one round of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia Series remaining, Oscar Targett provisionally leads Brock Gilchrist in the standings by 91 points, with 181 up for grabs at the Sydney Motorsport Park finale’ in October.

Clay Osborne holds third in the championship with Caleb Sumich fourth and Ayrton Hodson fifth.

In Pro-Am, Lachlan Harburg leads Danny Stutterd in the standings once the series ‘drop your worst round’ score is in place.

Andrew Georgiadis’ strong weekend in Tasmania sees him move to third position in the standings with Eric Constantinidis fourth.

The final round of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia Series will be decided at Sydney Motorsport Park at the Shannons SpeedSeries ‘Race Sydney’ event on October 18-20.