HARRI JONES converted pole position to victory in Race 1 of the third round of Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia at Hidden Valley, fending off early pressure from Jackson Walls to claim his eighth career race win.

Jones led home Walls and Dale Wood in the Equity-One Professional class battle amidst an intense 17-lap affair, while Adrian Flack won his sixth straight race in the TAG Heuer Pro-Am battle, finishing just in front of Rodney Jane.

In typically hot Darwin conditions, Jones made the best launch from pole, immediately covering his line from an aggressive Walls.

David Russell passed Dale Wood on the run to turn one to secure third, while the remainder of the field was tightly packed on the run to the first corner.

Contact in the middle of the pack between Tom McLennan and Ryder Quinn saw the latter spun into the outfield and later out of the race with gearbox issues in his Game Over Porsche.

A brief one-lap Safety Car saw the race restart with Jones continuing to lead Walls, gradually pulling away as he built his lead.

Wood slipped past Russell to grab third on lap three, while an intense battle continued behind for the minors with Coulthard, Wall, O’Keeffe and Hall fighting for spots within the top-10.

The top-10 ran lock-step for the majority of the race, though a key move came on lap 11 when Bayley Hall sliced down the inside of O’Keeffe at turn one.

There was further drama at the tight opening corner a lap later when Marco Giltrap hit Nash Morris under brakes, the latter spinning out of 10th position and the former penalised 15 seconds for the incident.

Out front, Jones edged away from Walls to claim a win by nearly four seconds, Wood home in a safe third to complete the podium.

David Russell and Fabian Coulthard completed the top five, the latter fending of David Wall in a drag race to the line by less than half a car length.

Bayley Hall was next, with O’Keeffe, Angelo Mouzouris – who started 12th – and Glen Wood completed the top-10 finishers.

The win was Jones’ eighth of his career and third of the season, the victory edging what was a 10-point championship lead to 29 heading to tomorrow’s Enduro Cup race and then final sprint.

In SP Tools Pro-Am, Adrian Flack led from lights to flag but his sixth win of the season came under intense pressure from Rodney Jane, the Bob Jane T-Marts racer ultimately finishing just 0.4 seconds behind the class championship.

Matt Slavin finished third in class while Matt Belford started a strong second however a spin at turn five saw him spin down the order, ultimately finishing fifth in class behind Marc Cini.

Round 3 of the championship continues on Sunday at the betr Darwin Triple Crown with the Enduro Cup race starting at 9:25am (Live, Fox Sports and Kayo) and the final race at 1:55pm (Live, Fox, Kayo and Channel 7).