The bend: The first of two endurance races, the result sets up for an iconic Bathurst weekend.
147 laps to make an impact and influence the final positions for points in the enduro cup. The conditions were anything but cheery. For the most part from the start of the race, rain made for a dramatic result. There was plenty happening from the get-go with many drivers struggling between fights for track position or simply the crazy conditions. By lap 25, the conditions had worsened and almost turned into a swimming pool. Drivers were going off into the gravel traps and almost beaching themselves, these conditions stayed around for a while, with a safety car being called before a restart. On the restart, the conditions has begun to better and vision was improving.
In the end, one driver/co-driver combo would win and that went to Chaz Mostert along with his co-driver Fabian Coulthard, managed to secure the win in Adelaide despite the rough wet and rainy conditions. Having started from outside of the top 10, there was work to be had to gain ontrack, and both drivers drove an impressive race to ensure the win was theirs. The other Walkinshaw pairing also joined Mostert and Coulthard, with Ryan Wood and his co-driver Jaxon Evans securing a p3 finish having started from outside the top 10 as well, in P14.
Splitting the two Walkinshaw cars was the pairing of Kai Allen and co-driver Tim Slade. Slade had an impressive run in the front of the field for a decent amount of the race; Allen was left to do the remainder with chasing down Mostert. To no avail, he couldn’t, but finishing P2 at the bend with the conditions was a solid run. His teammate Matt Payne, along with his co-driver Will Davison struggled against those ahead, slipping in positions from P2, down to P6 for the final result. They also recieved a post-race penalty, which dropped them down one spot. This pairing will be looking to redeem themselves at Bathurst.
Will Brown along with his co-driver Scott Pye had similar results to those on the podium, working hard to gain track position, moving up 9 spots to finish P4. The other side of the Redbull Ampol garage, saw devastation as they dropped 17 positions to P24 and struggled to gain any position.
There were two Chevrolet Camaros within the top 10. P5 went to the PremiAir Racing duo Jayden Ojeda and co-driver David Russell. This was an impressive result for the pairing, up 5 positions from where they started and through all the conditions still secured a solid chunk of points. The other Camaro was from Team18, Anton De Pasquale and co-driver Lee Holdsworth, who managed to finish P8. This pairing was unfortunately down 3 positions from where they’d started but still scored good points heading into the second and last endurance racing.
The third Supra to get into the top 10 belonged to Andre Heimgartner and co-driver Bryce Fullwood. Up 10 positions from their starting spot, the duo managed to work together and work through the difficult conditions to ensure they scored decent points, and finish P9.
Rylan Gray and his co-driver Tony D’Alberto worked together well and despite some minor issues towards the start of the race, the duo still finished in P10 ahead of their other car of Brodie Kostecki and co-driver Todd Hazelwood who finished P17 despite starting in the top 10.
The last team mentioned unfortunately despite having a great race, was later disqualified due to issues associated with laps completed by the co-driver. James Golding and co-driver Richie Stanaway performed brilliantly and would’ve finished P7. The other driver, co-driver combo from that team was Aaron Cameron and Zak Best. This duo also got disqualified post-race and would score no points, but the car itself suffered a battering after being involved in multiple incidents during the race.
We return this week to the mountain. The one where your dreams can be made or broken. Bathurst produces some of the best wheel-to-wheel racing, where anything can happen and typically it will. This is also the decider for the winner of the enduro cup.
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