ARON SHIELDS has powered to his maiden Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia round victory by virtue of a stunning race win in the final race at Sydney Motorsport Park.

In a weekend-long battle with TekworkX Motorsport teammate Nash Morris, Shields was leading the final race when Morris spun out of second position at Turn 11, giving the former all the points he needed to claim his first round success in circuit racing.

Morris, who had earlier won race two, finished second overall while championship leader Marco Giltrap finished third to extend his series lead aboard his Team Porsche NZ / Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche.

Adrian Flack claimed the Pro-Am class win over Matt Slavin and Sam Shahin, while Stephen Moylan took advantage of a Brad Carr non-finish in race three to claim the Class B win on debut.

At the half-way point of the series, Marco Giltrap continues to lead Ronan Murphy, with the margin now 38 points.

Aron Shields’ superb weekend rocketed him to third, with Zak Stichbury fourth and Harrison Goodman now fifth.

In Pro-Am, Sam Shahin still continues to lead, with Andrew Goldie now second, while Phil Morriss extended his Class B lead following a consistent weekend in Sydn

The Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia series resumes in two weeks time at Queensland Raceway for Round 4 of the series, racing with the Shannons SpeedSeries on August 11-13.

RACE 2

Nash Morris maintained his perfect record in Porsche competition after making a bold last lap move on his TekworkX Motorsport teammate Aron Shields in Race Two of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park.

In a repeat of the Saturday night race, the two TekworkX cars ran riot, Morris and Shields the only two drivers to set lap times in the 1m 32s range in the race.

Shields led the field away from the outside of the front row, and led the whole race right until Morris made his move at turn six on the fourteenth and final lap.

The TekworkX teammates gapped the field to the tune of almost ten seconds, with Team Porsche New Zealand/EBM’s Marco Giltrap rounding out the podium.

Giltrap made a brilliant overtake of his own to take third place, capitalising on a slight error from Lachlan Bloxsom to dive down the inside at turn seven on lap before covering aggressively at turn eight.

Bloxsom would take fourth for Bloxsom Team Navy, with Oscar Targett continuing to recover from his poor qualifying in fifth for Grove Racing.

In sixth was Pro-Am winner Adrian Flack, who put in a standout performance amongst the front runners, running in the top five for the majority of the race before being overtaken late by Targett.

Second in Pro-Am was Sam Shahin, who went on a tear in the opening laps, gaining twelve places in the first lap and a half, finishing thirteenth outright after starting in twenty eighth.

Matt Slavin rounded out the Pro-Am podium in his Ares Group entry in sixteenth outright.

Class B was won by the Car Mods Australia entry of Bradley Carr in twentieth outright, ahead of Lachlan Harburg in twenty second, with Brayden Taylor rounding out the podium in twenty seventh outright for Wall Racing.

RACE 3

TekworkX Motorsport’s Aron Shields won the final race of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park, clinching the round win after teammate Nash Morris had a difficult race.

Morris made a poor start from pole position, allowing Shields to take a lead he would not lose, and allowing Marco Giltrap to jump into second from third on the grid.

Morris was in the process of getting back past the Team Porsche New Zealand/EBM driver when the Safety Car was deployed following an incident at turn one between Pro-Am runners Andrew Goldie and Matt Slavin.

The lead Class B runner of the weekend, Bradley Carr, also found trouble on the first lap, losing power almost immediately.

The race went green again on lap five, and Shields began to inch away from the field as the TekworkX cars had done all weekend, with Giltrap finding himself coming under pressure from the recovering Morris.

Morris made his move on lap eight, bumping doors with the championship leader as they went through turn four.

Also on the charge was Grove Racing’s Oscar Targett, who moved by Lachlan Bloxsom at turn two off the restart and followed Morris to go past Giltrap into third.

Targett then gained another position when Morris spun by himself at turn ten on lap thirteen, dropping from second to fifteenth.

Though Morris would eventually recover to twelfth at the finish, the mistake cost the Porsche debutant the round win, as Shields cruised to a comfortable win by just over two seconds.

Targett finished second, with Hamish Fitzsimmons rounding out the podium in the third TekworkX entry, ahead of Rohan Murphy with Giltrap rounding out the top five.

The Pro-Am Class was won by AGAS National’s Damian Flack, who secured another top ten outright result in a strong performance, with Sam Shahin second in fourteenth outright for The Bend Motorsport Park, and Casper Tresidder claiming third in class with sixteenth outright for Wall Racing/Hillcrest.

The Class B race blown wide open after Carr’s issues off the start, with Lachlan Harburg claiming the class win for Autohouse Racing in nineteenth outright, with Stephen Moylan second and twenty fifth outright, with Brayden Taylor rounding out the podium in twenty sixth outright.

Race 1 Morris dominates Porsche debut under Sydney lights

Nash Morris has dominated his Porsche debut, leading a TekworkX Motorsport 1-2 in the opening race of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Morris and teammate and polesitter Aron Shields got an even launch off the front row and were side-by-side for the opening four corners in a great exchange, Morris eventually gaining the upper hand after hanging tough around the outside of turn two.

Morris and Shields proceeded to march away from the chasing pack over the course of the thirteen lap journey, gaining over ten seconds on Marcos Flack who finished third on road.

Morris’ win came on his one-make Porsche debut and adds to prior success in other categories including Super3 and Trans Am.

While he finished third on the road, Flack’s race was over before it had ever really begun – a five second penalty for creeping outside of his grid box whilst the grid was forming demoting the Sonic driver from third to eleventh in the final results.

After Flack’s post-race penalty was applied, Lachlan Bloxsom was promoted to third in the Bloxsom Team Navy entry, a position sealed with a racy move on Ronan Murphy at turn five on lap seven.

Sonic’s Murphy finished fourth, with Marco Giltrap completing the top five for Team Porsche New Zealand/EBM.

There was plenty of drama throughout the race, as first Class B runner Lachlan Harburg and Pro-Am competitor Eric Constantinidis had contact on the second lap, Harburg eventually retiring due to the damage sustained.

Constantinidis’ night wouldn’t get any better following a second incident, this this time Pro-Am runner Lachlan Gilksten, breaking the right front suspension on his Upto11 Motorsport entry and forcing him out of the race.

A spin at turn 12 from West Aussie young gun Caleb Sumich was the only other notable incident from an otherwise clean display of racing from the 30-strong field.

Pro-Am was won by AGAS National’s Adrian Flack in seventh outright, helped by Sam Shahin having a wild off at turn one on lap eleven, easing the pressure on Flack.

Matt Slavin finished second in class, his best-yet result in PMSC competition. He was followed home by Andrew Goldie, who spent much of his race battling with the Class B winner – Car Mods Australia’s Bradley Carr who finished seventeenth outright.