Paul Kemal led from start to finish as he dominated the opening race of Aussie Racing Cars at Gold Coast’s Indy Street Circuit today, while a last lap scuffle dropped Series leader Brad Ward from third to seventh on the final turn.
A lightning start vaulted Kemal into an early lead which he built on by setting a blistering pace that only Paul Morris could match. A safety car intervention cut his lead back to naught, but a scintillating last lap under immense pressure secured Kemal victory.
“I certainly wasn’t happy about the safety car coming out as I pretty much had the race wrapped up, ” Kemal said.
“I got a great jump on the field for the last lap dash and in the end it was a comfortable win. ”
V8 Supercar driver Paul Morris held down a strong second place early before dueling heavily with Ben McCashney on the final lap, re-passing him with only a few turns remaining.
“At this circuit I have never really driven anything that you can throw around and have a bit of fun with, ” Morris said.
“That is exactly how the ‘pocket rockets’ are meant to be driven! ”
“On the final lap I had a great battle with McCashney who passed me down the back straight, but under brakes I was a bit quicker and was able to come through with second. ”
A disappointingly slow start dropped McCashney down to fourth. After a few laps battling with David Lawrence and the Ward brothers he found his groove and set a string of exceptional lap times, breaking the lap record in the process.
“I had a poor start which dropped me down the order and it took a while for me to recover and find the pace I know the car is capable of, ” McCashney said.
“The safety car came out at a perfect time, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to capitalise on it and finished third. ”
A last corner mistake by Brad Ward saw him clip the wall and drop to seventh place, but crucially his brother James passed him picking up valuable points.
A stranded Ryan Flynn was collected by Travis Edwards who was left with nowhere to go, colliding heavily and ending both their races. Peter Carr sustained damage to the side of his ‘pocket rocket’ when he was hit by Colin Sieders who got airborne in the incident.
Shane Wolki cemented Masters Cup race victory with a storming drive that saw him finish 12th overall, holding a comfortable margin over second placed runner Tom Vececivic while Chris Ensby was third.
Wolki qualified down in 19th place and steadily made his way towards the top 10 using his experience to steer clear of the carnage that claimed many runners around him. Season long rival Steve MacGregor succumbed to a last lap problem that dropped him to last position, enabling Wolki to close the gap in the Masters Cup points.
The ‘pocket rockets’ Race 2 commences at 8am tomorrow morning while the third and final race starts at 11:30am Saturday at the famous Indy Street Circuit.
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