Round of Australia Race 1At the start, the field filed through the chicane fairly cleanly, with only the two drivers on the front row failing, as Greenlaw and Davies both overshot the chicane. Davies lost his spot to Jantscher (who had a brilliant start), Nurmester and Cameron, while Greenlaw dropped well down the order. The first big incident of the race was at turn 4, involving Franc Piscine, Takuma Taki and Hendra Naufal. As they went down Wakefield Street, Taki moved across to the inside of Piscine, and Naufal went even further over to try and pass Taki. As they hit the brakes, Piscine moved over and made contact with Taki, launching the Red Bull into the air. Taki hit Naufal, who spun and managed to continue. Piscine had lost some control, and managed to avoid Taki, who had locked his brakes, but he couldn't avoid the barrier, and stuck it into the fence, trapping Taki behind. The two Jones cars also came together, as they raced each other to turn 5, Swerts moved across on Dinella and spun himself around, dropping to last place with Taki.
Turn 9 saw more action, as Cameron passed Nurmester for second place, but further behind some drivers lost their heads. Lorenzo Crescenzi tried an ambitious move on Joe Harmsky, that ended in Crescenzi rolling into the barrier and Harmsky needing a new front wing. Further back, Branko Ristic tried to pass Joel Melrose, but never got far enough down the inside and sent Melrose into the barrier and retirement, while Ristic set about spinning and causing a traffic jam.
On lap 2, Nathanael Cameron went down the inside of Jantscher into turn 4 to take the lead. Lap 2 was slightly calmer, but again there was contact at turn 9, this time between Shane Walsh and Dorien Lamberigts. Walsh launched himself down the inside and caught the Octan driver unawares, with Walsh spinning his car and Lamberigts continuing on.
Turn 9 provided yet more entertainment on virtually every lap, with Leandro Moreira and Roland Davidson coming together on lap 3. Davidson had the move done, until Moreira turned in. Davidson continued, while the Fusion found the fence and retired. Jan Maylander also provided some entertainment, running wide into the fence at turn 11 completely on his own. Lap 4 saw van der Maeyede and Dinella make contact at 9, but fortunately it was wheel to wheel and there were no problems.
Nick Nurmester became the first mechanical retirement on lap 5, suffering a brake problem and beaching his car in the sand at turn 5. Shane Walsh joined him on the sidelines later in the lap, an oil leak and resultant engine fire putting him out on the spot. Carsten Jancker also became another retirement, as he did the same as Maylander at turn 11. Unlike Maylander's crash though, he had drivers right behind him, with Bainomugisha running into him, and Calvin Brooks taking to the run off to avoid the mess.
Lap 6 saw Dale Hamilton make a basic mistake, as he went slightly off line at turn 8, resulting in a lazy spin and the destruction the front of his car on the inside wall. He was very lucky not to have a bigger accident, as Taki, having already caught up him, very nearly collected him, and Samora Mondlane not far behind also got lucky, just avoiding a bouncing wheel. Just up the road, Davidson and Naufal came together, Davidson getting dangerously close to being upside down. A classic case of the driver on the outside not leaving enough room, and Naufal would pick up a penalty while Davidson retired.
The field was now spread out a bit, and the on track action died down. Takuma Taki continued to march through the field, until he ran way too wide at turn 6 and retired, ending an already bad day for Red Bull. The next lap saw a few more retirements, Peter Port retiring from a top 10 spot with a transmission problem, and Roberto Zayas locking his brakes at turn 6 and getting stuck in the barriers. Three drivers also had to pit, Pitea with an electrical issue and Harmsky and Brooks for front wings after making contact at turn 9. Harmsky had been making solid progress through the field, until Brooks turned in as he tried to pass the Kingfisher, but Harmsky was lucky. Brooks would receive a penalty.
Jose Maria Cabral became the next DNF with a water leak on lap 11, then shortly afterwards Brooks picked up more penalty points, this time for dangerous driving. Having lost a lap in the pits, he exited the pitlane and swerved straight in front of Eric Swerts, the Belgian having to take evasive action.
But at the end of the lap, pre-season title favourite and polesitter Dan Greenlaw pitted from 4th place. It seemed a wheel had worked itself loose, and when he came out of the pits, he was 10th and still an outside shot at points. Until lap 14, when he tried too hard and ran wide at turn 11, needing a new front wing and dropping a lap. Anita Horford and Hendra Naufal both retired that lap as well, Horford with a crash at turn 6 and Naufal with a water leak.
Up front, Nathanael Cameron had led the entire race after passing Jantscher, keeping a steady gap to the chasing pack, which by lap 6 wasn't really a pack anymore. Jantscher had fallen back to 5th, while Jordan Davies was having a sensational debut, running a constant second, with Daniel Melville third, and until his wheel issue, Greenlaw fourth. Raul Souto Maior had been steadily losing time, with his teammate Batistuta and the two Linton-Solindahl drivers being nice surprises just behind, battling for position. However, Greenlaw's problems were the only points of interest in the top 10, most of them too far apart to make a move anywhere.
The second last lap saw Eric Swerts come to a stop with a broken suspension, and the final lap saw no changes to position, as Nathanael Cameron took the flag, and fastest lap as well. Jordan Davies came home a brilliant second, followed by Daniel Melville.
Results - Race 1Code: Select all
Pos Driver Team Time/Retired Gap
1 Nathanael Cameron Prospec 24:06.220 16 LAPS
2 Jordan Davies West Cliff 24:15.300 + 9.080
3 Daniel Melville ZimSport 24:16.714 + 10.494
4 Marko Jantscher Fusion 24:19.321 + 13.101
5 Raul Souto Maior Aeroracing 24:33.613 + 27.393
6 Quention Reatherson Linton-Solindahl 24:45.651 + 39.431
7 Paul Travesen Linton-Solindahl 24:46.953 + 40.733
8 Diego Mauricio Batistuta Aeroracing 24:47.345 + 41.125
9 Victoria Desai Kamaha 24:49.303 + 43.083
10 Roberto Dinella Jones 24:49.948 + 43.728
11 Marcos Marcia Good Call 25:00.435 + 53.215
Code: Select all
12 Martin van der Maeyede Kingfisher 25:03.709 + 57.489
13 Bob Sampson Kamaha 25:04.190 + 57.970
14 Judd McAllister BITWM 25:12.375 + 1:06.155
15 Tetsuya Takagi Takagi 25:13.022 + 1:06.802
16 Tyler Buckley Gulf JCW 25:13.613 + 1:07.393
17 Dorien Lamberigts Octan 25:17.846 + 1:11.626
18 Samora Mondlane Porto Wine 25:20.182 + 1:13.962
19 Yuri Sokolov Shonan 25:20.935 + 1:14.715
20 Ryan Zimmer ZimSport 25:21.833 + 1:15.613
21 Alessandro Lucarelli Parma Corse 25:34.892 + 1:28.672
22 Branko Ristic Hydook 25:36.600 + 1:30.380
23 Kevin Bainomugisha Octan +1 LAP
24 Dan Greenlaw Prospec +1 LAP
Code: Select all
25 Joe Harmsky Shonan +1 LAP
26 Calvin Brooks Kingfisher +1 LAP
27 Jan Maylander Dofasco +1 LAP
28 Iulian Pitea Dofasco +1 LAP
29* Eric Swerts Jones Suspension (L15) +2 LAPS
30* Hendra Naufal Takagi Water Leak (L14) +3 LAPS
31* Anita Horford BITWM Accident (L14) +3 LAPS
DNF Jose Maria Cabral Porto Wine Water Leak (L11)
DNF Roberto Zayas ZombieKart Accident (L10)
DNF Peter Port West Cliff Transmission (L10)
DNF Takuma Taki Red Bull Accident (L9)
DNF Roland Davidson Gulf JCW Collision (L6)
DNF Dale Hamilton Red Bull Accident (L6)
Code: Select all
DNF Carsten Jancker Hydook Accident (L5)
DNF Shane Walsh ZombieKart Oil Leak (L5)
DNF Nick Nurmester JLD Brakes (L5)
DNF Leandro Moreira Fusion Collision (L3)
DNF Joel Melrose JLD Collision (L1)
DNF Lorenzo Crescenzi Parma Corse Collision (L1)
DNF Franc Piscine Good Call Collision (L1)
Fastest lap: Nathanael Cameron (1:28.924)
