Weekend Wrap – Carrera Cup Australia Aus GP Rd1

A storming drive in the final race of round 1 at the Australian Grand Prix was the highlight of Dylan O’Keeffe’s return to the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship.

Qualifying

The weekend started slowly with 17th position in qualifying, after an abysmally timed red flag disrupted our final run. “I was setting up for a hot lap on my second set of tyres when the red flag came out, which was frustrating because it left me buried in the field,” O’Keeffe said.

Race 1
In the opening race Dylan was making up positions to 12th before some minor contact and a piece of debris from another competitor’s car punctured the radiator. With coolant spraying on the front tyre not much could be done other than nursing the car to the chequered flag. On the last lap this saw us fall back to P17 undoing all of the good work throughout the course of the race.

Race 2

The second race was a chaotic affair, with multiple incidents and two Safety Car interruptions. Leaking radiator fluid, luckily from another car this time, made the circuit extremely slippery, with Dylan surviving a couple of anxious moments and ultimately finishing 13th. The positive being that the gained position were locked in for the next race with the progressive grid format. “That was a strange race – there was a car that was dropping coolant everywhere, and all the drivers behind were just trying to stay on the track,” he said.

Race 3
A cracking start in Race 3 saw us gaining five positions on the opening lap. The race was again punctuated by safety cars which kept the pack bunched up for most of the race. Once unleashed Dylan showed off his race craft with a great move around the outside of Turn 3 to gain another position then with some clear track at his disposal Dylan was finally able to demonstrate his true race pace to finish seventh.

Race 4
Another strong start in the fourth and final race moved us up to sixth and despite the race being interrupted by two more Safety Cars, Dylan was able to gain another two positions to finish fourth. “The last race was definitely the highlight and our result was a reflection of where we should have been all weekend,” O’Keeffe said.

“Our speed on cold tyres after the Safety Car restart wasn’t as strong as others, but once the tyres came up to temperature the car was a jet – it was quick enough to be right up with the leaders.”

We finished the weekend eighth overall.

“We obviously didn’t qualify well and left ourselves with too much work in the races, but we learned a lot about the new car and our race pace was strong,” O’Keeffe said.

“For the next round, we’ll concentrate on improving our qualifying form so we can be racing up the front from the start of the weekend.”

The next Carrera Cup round will be held at Winton, 21-22 May.

Round Results Summary
Qualifying: 17th
Race 1: 17th
Race 2: 13th
Race 3: 7th
Race 4: 4th
Overall: 8th

Carrera Cup Championship Standings
1. Max Vidau – 154
2. David Wall – 150
3. Aaron Love – 147
4. Harri Jones – 135
5. Ryan Suhle – 83
6. Christian Pancione – 82
7. David Russell – 77
8. Dylan O’Keeffe – 72
9. Simon Fallon – 65
10. Angelo Mouzouris – 61