News Team TRT October 8, 2023 (Comments off) (317)

King is King

HARRY KING had never seen Mount Panorama’s 6.213km of undulations before Wednesday, but that didn’t stop the 22-year-old British ace from sweeping his debut weekend in the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia.

King delivered three wins, the round victory and a new Bathurst lap record this weekend in an emphatic championship debut for the three-time Supercup race winner.

It was EMA’s first Carrera Cup round win, while King became the sixth different winner from six Carrera Cup rounds this year.

He won the round and the Equity One Professional Class  ahead of Harri Jones – who finished second in all three races – and Kiwi Chris van der Drift in third.

Liam Talbot swept all three races in the SP Tools Pro-Am class to deliver a Bathurst round win aboard the Moutai Porsche, with Adrian Flack second and Matt Belford on the Bathurst podium in third.

Race 3 saw a repeat of the King-versus-Jones battle into Turn one, with the EMA driver once again claiming the ascendancy as they raced towards turn two.

Van der Drift challenged Jones before the 2022 champ was able to wrestle the spot away into Griffins.

The leading trio pulled away from the field with the two leaders in particular trading punch-for-punch lap times all race.

King managed a one-second margin early before Jones was able to close, both drivers lapping beneath the lap record in their intense battle for the lead.

Ultimately Jones had little to challenge the leader who managed a six-tenths margin on the final lap to complete his sweep, with Jones second and van der Drift third.

Jackson Walls continued his march forward to finish the race fourth and remove almost all of the deficit to championship leader Callum Hedge, the Kiwi now less than 10 points in front heading into the final two rounds.

Max Vidau was one of several drivers to survive a brush with the fence to finish fifth while Dylan O’Keeffe was sixth.

Simon Fallon raced his way to seventh position in front of Garnet Patterson, Angelo Mouzouris and Ryder Quinn in 10th.

Quinn headed a massive freight-train of cars behind him with Bayley Hall, Fabian Coulthard, Christian Pancione, Alex Davison and a recovering David Russell all dicing.

Talbot edged away to a comfortable victory in the SP Tools Pro-Am class to also complete the weekend sweep, with Adrian Flack second and Matt Belford third.

The trio also finished the round in that order with the Pro-Am championship, like the Equity One Pro battle, also closing up this weekend.

A short break in hostilities will see the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship pause for three weeks before resuming at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 later in October.

In the meantime, the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia will be in action next weekend at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia.

HARRY KING

“It’s an immense feeling. Doing one win alone on the Friday was good enough but to follow it up with another two and score three wins on the Mountain at Bathurst was a really incredible feeling and I’m super grateful to EMA Motorsport for giving me the tools to do the job.

“We proved our dominance in that race by setting a new lap record so I think we ticked nearly every box that could be ticked this weekend.

“This circuit is incredible. I didn’t expect it to be the way it was. It’s definitely a big challenge to learn with just a short free practice session and this is one of the highlights of my career so far.”

LIAM TALBOT

“It’s so special and to have the Sunday crowd already here for the 1000 just makes it even more unbelievable, I’ve got Goosebumps.

“I had a lot of cobwebs coming into my first round when everyone else was in round five, so I felt a bit rusty, but this place is special. I had the win at the 12-Hour, a win in GT and now wins in Carrera Cup – it’s been an unbelievable year here.”

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