DALE WOOD claimed a wild VAILO Adelaide 500 Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia opener on the streets of the South Australian capital on Friday afternoon, while both the Equity-One Professional and SP Tools Pro-Am Enduro Cup titles were decided in a dramatic race.

Jackson Walls (Pro) and Adrian Flack (Pro-Am) sealed their respective class titles in style in the 40-minute race that was filled with drama from start to finish.

Wood led the field from pole position, gaining a clear advantage as the 29-car field charged through the Senna Chicane on the opening lap.

29 became 27 at turn four when Matt Belford and Sam Shahin made contact, with both cars forced out of the race as a result.

That delivered the race’s first Safety Car interruption, with Wood leading Walls, Bayley Hall, David Russell, Harri Jones and Lachie Bloxsom back to the green flag on lap four.

That green run didn’t last long however, as Bloxsom missed the braking point at the hairpin and while he missed Jones, contact was made with David Russell – eliminating both cars from the race and forcing a return to the Safety Car.

Following a lengthy clean up, the race resumed with Wood again powering away from the leader on the restart while Walls fended off Hall and Jones in a fight for third.

With Walls running second at the time, the margin between he and Jones was just two points in the fight for the Enduro Cup, with Jones looking to gain one more spot to re-take the series lead he held coming into the round.

That scenario then escalated further on the 15th lap when light contact from Jones tipped Hall into a spin at the hairpin.

Jones was penalised 15 seconds for his role in the contact, dropping him down the order to 14th, while Hall recovered to 23rd position with the race’s fastest lap small consolation.

At the end of the 20 laps completed, Wood charged home to claim his 19th career victory and continue his strong run of form on the Adelaide streets that dates back to his round win at the same circuit twelve months ago.

Walls finished second to ensure he wrapped up the Pro class Enduro Cup crown, adding to his Michelin Junior title in the process.

Dylan O’Keeffe finished in third position which, with David Russell a non-finisher, helped close the battle in their fight for second and third in the championship standings. Just 43 points separate the pair heading into tomorrow’s sprint race, with 120 points remaining up for grabs across the final two races. Jackson Walls’ run to second saw him close to within 13 points of O’Keeffe in third.

A stirring drive from Angelo Mouzouris saw him charge from ninth to fourth at the line, his best result since the fourth race of the season in New Zealand earlier this year.

David Wall was a solid fifth while Clay Osborne smashed his prior PB to finish sixth in just his fourth ever Carrera Cup race.

Glen Wood was combative en-route to seventh position with Nash Morris and Fabian Coulthard boxing on in their battle for what turned out to be eighth and ninth – the pair climbing from outside the top 15 at race’s start.

Tom McLennan completed the top-10 in a race where several drivers either set or equaled their personal best race results.

Adrian Flack claimed victory in SP Tools Pro-Am, while the class championship battle took a serious twist with Matt Slavin finishing second – four places in front of rival for second overall this year, Rodney Jane.

That result tipped the Pro-Am fight for second back in the favour of Slavin heading into race two.

With Slavin second, South Australian Carrera Cup rookie Anthony DiMauro finished third in Pro-Am on his debut race, chasing Slavin to the line while being tailed by race and round winner, Dean Cook.

Stephen Grove was fifth ahead of Rodney Jane, with Marc Cini and Indiran Padayachee completing the runners.

Race two will commence at 1:20pm local time on Saturday with live coverage on Fox Sports, Kayo and Channel 7 Sport.