O’Keeffe wins Carrera Cup Asia/Aus Pro race

Dylan O’Keeffe has backed up his first Carrera Cup Australia race win with victory in the joint Asia/Australia Pro Race at a dark Sydney Motorsport Park.

O’Keeffe took over the lead by the end of the first lap and was untroubled for the next 15 in the #88 Ashley Seward Motorsport car, finishing clear of David Wall (Wall Racing) in second and Will Bamber in third.

Martin Ragginger (Team Porsche Holding) started from pole by virtue of the fastest lap in Porsche Carrera Cup Asia qualifying and the Thursday night coin toss which put the Asian series competitors on the left-hand-side of the grid for the Pro race.

O’Keeffe took up fourth position on the grid and it was those two who made the fastest starts as they led Bamber and Wall through the opening corners.

Ragginger handed the lead to O’Keeffe when he made a mess of the Turn 10/Turn 11 complex at the end of Lap 1, and the loss of momentum saw Bamber blaze into second down Brabham Straight and Wall into third on the run to Turn 2.

Word soon came through that Ragginger’s start was in fact too good and the Austrian would have a five-second penalty added to his race time.

O’Keeffe gradually pulled away at the front and his lead peaked over two seconds with a lap remaining before he safely navigated his way to the chequered flag having broken through in Porsche Wilson Security Carrera Cup Australia around six hours earlier.

Wall harassed Bamber for several laps and finally executed the pass when the #112 Earl Bamber Motorsport entry got crossed up into Turn 1 on the last lap.

Ragginger had enough in reserve over fifth-placed Jaxon Evans (McElrea Racing) to retain fourth despite the extra five seconds.

The day’s other maiden Carrera Cup Australia race winner, Jordan Love (Sonic Motor Racing), copped a drive-through for turning Philip Hamprecht (Team StarChase) around at Turn 8 on Lap 3 but ended up retiring anyway.

Kiwis Evans and Chris van der Drift, an Asia competitor, leave Sydney with reduced leads in their respective title fights.

Pro-Am race

Roger Lago won the joint Pro-Am Race in twilight conditions just prior.

Lago got away cleanly from pole, while outside front row starter Bao Jinlong’s start was hampered by wheelspin in his initial getaway.

An early Safety Car was thrown for Siu Yuk Lung, who swiped the inside wall on the exit of Turn 1 and had to limp off the track with damage to the right-hand-side of his car.

Following the lengthy intervention, Lago led the field back to green flag racing on Lap 7 with Jinlong in tow.

Adrian Flack began to pressure the Chinese driver before making a move into second place before Turn 10.

The Safety Car was called once again at the halfway point of the race as Wayne Shen pulled over at Turn 3 with damage to his car after contact with Anthony Gilbertson.

Stephen Grove pitted during the recovery after picking up a puncture from the debris while running in the top 10.

Lago held his nerve when the race restarted again for a one-lap dash, crossing the line with a 1.3s advantage to Flack as Jinlong represented Asia on the podium.

Gilbertson brought his car home in fourth ahead Shane Smollen, making it four Carrera Cup Australia cars in the top five.

Carrera Cup Asia Round 7 race

Earlier in the afternoon, Hamprecht executed a clean start from the front row and cleared out in the second Carrera Cup Asia race of the weekend which formed Round 7 of the season.

Maxime Jousse battled his way up to second after an incredible double pass at Turn 1 in the mid-stages of the race, taking advantage of a duel between van der Drift and Ragginger.

The latter ultimately finished third, ahead of Bamber and van der Drift.

Carrera Cup Australia continues with Round 6 on the Supercars support card at The Bend, while Round 8 of Carrera Cup Asia takes place at the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix on September 14-16.

Results: Pro Race

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Class	Laps	Race time
1	88	APB Group	Dylan O’Keeffe	P	16	24:39.6624
2	1	PAYCE/Wilson Security	David Wall	P	16	24:41.4243
3	112	Earl Bamber Motorsport	Will Bamber	P	16	24:41.8742
4	186	Team Porsche Holding	Martin Ragginger	P	16	24:55.3413
5	7	Morris Finance	Jaxon Evans	P	16	24:59.4001
6	100	Sonic/Polyflor	Dale Wood	P	16	25:00.4895
7	18	Payce/Wilson Security/JBL	James Moffat	P	16	25:00.9045
8	77	Bob Jane T Marts/PSA	Michael Almond	P	16	25:04.7110
9	111	BAXX Australia	Cameron Hill	P	16	25:09.4242
10	166	AAS MOTORSPORT by Absolute Rac	Maxime Jousse	P	16	25:09.9060
11	8	Porsche Centre Melbourne	Nick McBride	P	16	25:10.1696
12	888	Porsche Centre Brighton/Porsch	Glen Wood	P	16	25:10.6075
13	12	Garwood Motorsport	Adam Garwood	P	16	25:14.7481
14	115	est cola PTT	Tanart Sathienthirak	P	16	25:30.3178
15	199	Team StarChase	Philip Hamprecht	P	16	25:31.7163
16	177	Team Jebsen	Yue Cui	P	16	25:35.2358
17	188	Porsche Shanghai Waigaoqiao &	Bo Yuan	P	16	25:42.0881
18	162	Presido Jakarta Ban Racing	Ahmad F. Alam	P	16	25:51.7583
19	14	Sonic/Totally 4×4	Peter Major	P	15	24:48.7911
DNF	159	Porsche China Junior Team	Daniel Lu	P	15	24:18.3998
DNF	777	Bob Jane T Marts	Jordan Love	P	7	12:06.1516
DNF	101	Team Formax	Chris van der Drift	P	5	8:09.7035

Results: Pro-Am Race

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Class	Laps	Race time
1	23	JBS Australia	Roger Lago	A	12	27:17.4518
2	20	Agas National	Adrian Flack	A	12	27:18.8338
3	155	Zheng Tong Auto	Jinlong Bao	A	12	27:20.4025
4	19	Hallmark Homes	Anthony Gilbertson	A	12	27:20.4893
5	5	Arris/Strongbuild	Shane Smollen	A	12	27:20.5923
6	109	Porsche Beijing Central & Gold	Chao Li	A	12	27:21.7002
7	121	OpenRoad Racing	Francis Tjia	A	12	27:22.6209
8	6	Miles Advisory Partners/Garage	Tim Miles	A	12	27:22.9321
9	22	BMF/Pitman Racing	Dean Cook	A	12	27:23.3535
10	128	Modena Motorsports	John Shen	A	12	27:24.0428
11	178	True Visions Motorsports Thail	Suttiluck Buncharoen	A	12	27:24.6937
12	35	Hyundai Forklifts Australia	Indiran Padayachee	A	12	27:26.6959
13	9	Hallmarc	Marc Cini	A	12	27:27.7440
14	131	Harcourts Williams	Graham Williams	A	12	27:28.3356
15	123	Paul TRESIDDER	Paul Tresidder	A	12	27:28.8958
16	110	Earl Bamber Motorsport	Graeme Dowsett	A	12	27:29.8840
17	169	OpenRoad Racing	Christian Chia	A	12	27:31.5731
18	4	Grove Group	Stephen Grove	A	12	27:33.0370
19	198	KiddyWorld Racing	Eric Kwong	A	12	27:33.4239
20	111	Earl Bamber Motorsport	Jeffrey Chiang	A	12	27:34.8449
21	102	Prince Racing	Kenneth Lau	A	12	27:35.7614
22	168	Kamlung Racing	Hing Tak Mak	A	12	27:36.9453
23	117	Arrows Racing	Yui Sum Fung	A	12	27:37.2788
DNF	108	Racing Spirit Thailand	Sontaya Kunplome	A	11	25:50.9997
DNF	116	Modena Motorsports	Wayne Shen	A	7	15:57.4446
DNF	122	LKM Racing	Yuk Lung Siu	A	1	1:54.6124

Results: Carrera Cup Asia Race 2

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Class	Laps	Race time
1	199	Team StarChase	Philip HAMPRECHT (GER)	P	15	27:46.4947
2	166	AAS MOTORSPORT by Absolute Rac	Maxime JOUSSE (THA)	P	15	27:48.4171
3	186	Team Porsche Holding	Martin RAGGINGER (AUT)	P	15	27:49.9668
4	112	Earl Bamber Motorsport	Will BAMBER (NZL)	P	15	27:52.1081
5	101	Team Formax	Chris VAN DER DRIFT (NZL)	P	15	27:56.5376
6	177	Team Jebsen	Yue CUI (CHN)	P	15	27:59.7313
7	115	est cola PTT	Tanart SATHIENTHIRAK (THA)	P	15	27:59.9869
8	188	Porsche Shanghai Waigaoqiao &	Bo YUAN (CHN)	P	15	28:07.4743
9	109	Porsche Beijing Central & Gold	Chao LI (CHN)	A	15	28:20.9650
10	116	Modena Motorsports	Wayne SHEN (HKG)	A	15	28:21.1800
11	155	Zheng Tong Auto	Jinlong BAO (CHN)	A	15	28:22.2208
12	159	Porsche China Junior Team	Daniel LU (CHN)	P	15	28:22.9444
13	169	OpenRoad Racing	Christian CHIA (CAN)	A	15	28:27.1872
14	128	Modena Motorsports	John SHEN (HKG)	A	15	28:28.6195
15	162	Presido Jakarta Ban Racing	Ahmad F. ALAM (INA)	P	15	28:28.7933
16	178	True Visions Motorsports Thail	Suttiluck BUNCHAROEN (THA)	A	15	28:46.1540
17	123	Paul TRESIDDER	Paul TRESIDDER (AUS)	A	15	28:48.2717
18	108	Racing Spirit Thailand	Sontaya KUNPLOME (THA)	A	15	29:11.1637
19	111	Earl Bamber Motorsport	Jeffrey CHIANG (TWN)	A	15	29:11.5359
20	110	Earl Bamber Motorsport	Graeme DOWSETT (SGP)	A	15	29:12.5532
21	122	LKM Racing	Yuk Lung SIU (HKG)	A	15	29:15.1138
22	102	Prince Racing	Kenneth LAU (HKG)	A	15	29:15.6614
23	117	Arrows Racing	Yui Sum FUNG (HKG)	A	15	29:16.7597
24	168	Kamlung Racing	Hing Tak MAK (HKG)	A	14	27:57.0580
DNF	198	KiddyWorld Racing	Eric KWONG (HKG)	A	12	24:13.4644
DNF	121	OpenRoad Racing	Francis TJIA (HKG)	A
DNF	133	Modena Motorsports	Antares AU (HKG)	A