HARRI JONES and Adrian Flack have once again emerged the big winners from a Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia round, though it was by no means easy.

The pair of championship leaders – Jones in Equity-One Pro and Flack in SP Tools Pro-Am – won the third and final race of round 5 at Sandown and by virtue of that also claimed the round.

Jones completed a perfect launch into a comfortable win over Dylan O’Keeffe and Jackson Walls on Sunday, breaking the lap record on his way to career win number 15.

He led home that same duo for the round podium with O’Keeffe in the top three for the second straight round, and Walls’ for the eighth time in his career.

It was Jones’ fifth career round win, the fourth of his remarkable season and ensures that he provisionally takes what is essentially a full round’s worth of championship points’ lead into Bathurst next month.

Flack, however had to fight even harder for his round victory amidst a thrilling four car Pro-Am freight train that would end up determining the race and round winners.

He held off Cook all race to win the race and take the round on a countback – by virtue of finishing higher in the final race. Matt Belford fended off Rodney Jane in the final corner to secure third for the race and the round.

Sunday’s race was the first this weekend held in dry conditions with everyone taking advantage of fresh Michelin slicks that hadn’t been touched since qualifying on Friday.

Jones’ led early while behind he and O’Keefe, Coulthard first passed Walls only to lose the spot promptly in the battle through the turn two, three and four chicane.

There was early drama behind as Glen Wood was turned around at turn one, the field splitting the stranded Ranbuild Porsche who was left a non-finisher.

Jones’ settled down in front, eventually re-setting O’Keeffe’s existing Sandown lap record with the first Carrera Cup racing lap in the 68-second range.

While the the top three ran lock-step for the entire race, Coulthard and Bayley Hall battled over fourth and fifth position with Nash Morris completing his excellent weekend in sixth.

David Russell, Ryder Quinn, Dale Wood and Lockie Bloxsom – in a career best weekend – rounded out the top 10, the five spending much of their race duelling for position in the back half of the top 10.

Behind, a furious fight for the minors continued with Ange Mouzouris, sans front splitter, spending much of the race fending off a battle pack that included Marco Giltrap, Tom McLennan, Caleb Sumich and teammate, Marcos Flack.

The Pro-Am fight went all the way to the line in what was arguably the most competitive event of the season for Carrera Cup’s race within a race.

With three rounds remaining, Harri Jones provisionally leads the Carrera Cup Championship’s Equity-One Pro standings by 180 points, with 181 available at Mount Panorama next time out.

Jackson Walls in second and Dylan O’Keeffe in third, however, are split by a much smaller margin, with David Russell fourth and Bayley Hall moving to fifth.

In SP Tools Pro-Am, Adrian Flack leads by a healthy margin, while Matt Slavin, Rodney Jane and Matt Belford remain evenly matched in the fight for second, third and fourth.

The sixth round of the 2024 Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship will see the field return to the legendary Mount Panorama circuit for the Repco Bathurst 1000 this October.