Grove wins Carrera Cup Aus/Asia Challenge race

Stephen Grove has taken a lights-to-flag victory in the combined Carrera Cup Australia/Carrera Cup Asia race for amateur drivers at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Grove had to work for his win, however, as traffic reduced a one-second lead to a grandstand finish with Yuan Bo.

Bo had joined the TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge driver on the front row, but bogged down at the start and dropped to fourth.

Shane Smollen slotted in behind his Australian counterpart but faded towards to end of the 10-lap race.

The McGrath Estate Agents driver committed a pressure mistake in running wide at Turn 2 on the penultimate lap, allowing a recovering Bo through.

Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak relegated Smollen a further position in the final lap.

In front, Bo closed right up to the rear of the Grove Hire machine rounding Corporate Hill for the final time, but Grove hung on for his first individual outright Carrera Cup race win.

The race was marred by a number of incidents, the most bruising being the Lap 3 clash between Tony Bates and Adrian Mastronardo as they attempted to negotiate a slow-moving Wang Xi.

Mastronardo moved to round up Wang exiting Turn 6 but instead drove into the path of Bates, who rode up on the rear corner of car #39.

James Bergmuller and Scott Taylor spun at the same corner three laps later when the former moved across the latter’s nose under brakes.

Bates and Taylor joined Tiger Wu and Yuey Tan as retirements, the two Asian competitors suffering mechanical dramas.

The Professional class drivers will have their own combined race this afternoon at 1605 AEST.

VIDEO: Stephen Grove speaks after the race

Result: Porsche Carrera Cup Asia and Australia Challenge Race

Pos	No.	Driver	Sponsor	Series
1	4	Stephen Grove	Grove Hire	Oz
2	106	Bo Yuan	Absolute Racing	Asia
3	118	Vutthikorn Inthraphu	est cola Thailand	Asia
4	56	Shane Smollen	McGrath Estate Agents	Oz
5	121	Francis Tjia	OpenRoad Racing	Asia
6	24	Tony Bates	Moveitnet / A.F.S	Oz
7	128	John Shen	Modena Motorsports	Asia
8	9	Marc Cini	Hallmarc	Oz
9	109	Chao Li	Team Betterlife	Asia
10	178	Buncharoen Suttiluck	True Visions Motorsports Thail	Asia
11	123	Paul Tresidder	Paul Tresidder	Asia
12	103	Michael Soeryadjaya	OpenRoad Racing	Asia
13	116	Wayne Shen	Modena Motorsports	Asia
14	117	Billy Fung	Arrows Racing	Asia
15	13	James Bergmuller	pricepressure.com.au	Oz
16	108	Kumplome Sontaya	Racing Spirit Thailand	Asia
17	122	Yuk Lung Siu	LKM Racing	Asia
18	107	Xi Wang	Team Formax	Asia
DNF	222	Scott Taylor	Scott Taylor Motorsport	Oz
DNF	39	Adrian Mastronardo	Veritas Porperty Group	Oz
DNF	111	Tiger Wu	RC Racing	Asia
DNF	105	Yuey Tan	Team Jebsen	Asia