Porsche Carrera Cup Australia: David Russell wins in New Zealand, Dale Wood remains in Championship Hunt
Porsche Carrera Cup Australia stalwart and Supercars endurance season ace David Russell claimed his maiden round victory in his 60th attempt, at Round 2 of the championship at the ITM Taupō 400 SuperSprint event in New Zealand.
Russell’s success ends the longest streak for any competing driver to not take a round win and follows six runner-up placings and 14 overall round podiums for the TekworkX Motorsport driver.
Porsche Carrera Cup Australia’s appearance at the Taupō event was also just the second ever to take place away from Australian shores, after the championship visited Malaysia’s Sepang circuit in 2018.
Shannons Ambassador Dale Wood meanwhile had a weekend of highs and lows as he recovered from mishaps to cap off his weekend in tenth, one position ahead of his brother, Glen Wood.
The Taupō event brought changeable conditions, with the opening race of the weekend affected by torrential rain.
Russell, starting from pole position, made a strong start to lead the opening stanza of the race.
A small moment for Wood saw him run wide, briefly taking to the grass, and allowing Fabian Coulthard past. Wood battled on, until he came unstuck and spun unaided causing light contact with Marco Giltrap who was taking evasive action.
Despite the conditions, Russell carefully navigated the 12-lap race to win ahead of Angelo Mouzouris, with Round 1 winner Harri Jones third. Wood was home P14.
Race 2 on Sunday morning saw the field take on a drying circuit for the Endurance Cup 24-lap heat. Once again, Russell avoided any on-track issues to overcome Dylan O’Keefe and Jackson Walls for his second win of the weekend.
Wood meanwhile put his experience and patience to work to steadily pass his rivals and finish fourth, just 0.6s behind Nash Morris’ podium place.
Welcome dry conditions greeted the field for the final race, which saw Russell starting from pole with positions determined by cumulative points from the opening two races.
Russell came under fire from Walls, the junior’s race pace taking a step up following multiple seasons of Porsche and Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia competition. Walls took the lead from Russell in the 15-lap race, the former then setting a new lap record of 1m 27.29s on his way to winning.
Russell cemented his round win with P2 in the finale, with Morris home in third.
In a post-weekend interview, Russell was delighted to break his unique streak following a hotly contested three races.
“It’s a great feeling to come away with the round win,” Said Russell.
“To finally have it is good – we’ve had plenty of wins and podiums but to get the monkey off the back is good and hopefully we can continue to keep rolling with it now.
“I just face-timed [Rob Woods, team owner] and he’s in great spirits.”
Wood meanwhile crossed the line P6 following a strong race despite worn tyres, however he was slapped with a penalty following the race for jumping the start which dropped him to P14.
Although not quite the weekend Wood had hoped for, he remains in touch for the 2024 Championship hunt.
“Race 1 was extremely wet, this really highlighted our weakness unfortunately,” Said Wood.
“I fought hard with a car that continually aquaplaned and tried my best to hold onto seventh position, I unfortunately lost the battle and spun and dropped to 14th by the end of the race.
“On Sunday, the conditions were a little better. For Race 2 it was wet at the start the track began to dry out. The start was a little tricky but after some good battles we finished fourth and we felt we had better direction for setup moving into the final race.
“In the finale we were one of a few cars that didn’t have a new set of tyres to lead with. I didn’t think that would affect us too much however with the surface being so old and abrasive proved me wrong.
We started off strong but when sitting on the line my clutch began to slip and I was deemed to jump the start.
By the halfway point, my tyres were very worn, and I was having to drive very defensively to keep a train of cars behind me. We finished sixth however the time penalty hanging over my result that unfortunately moved me back a bit.
“We will take from the round what we can, review all the positives and negatives - learn and head up north in a few weeks to Darwin. We’re hoping we can get back to front running form.”
In SP Tools Pro-Am, Adrian Flack extended his considerable lead in the championship by taking a clean sweep of victories and utterly dominate his class.
Local racers Rick Armstrong and Sam Fillmore flew the flag for New Zealand at Taupō, finishing their weekends in P2 and P3 respectively with Matt Slavin fourth.
Russell’s success surges him to P2 in the championship standings, just nine-points adrift of leader, Jones. Walls shares P3 with Wood both on equal points, with Ryder Quinn fifth.
Round 3 of the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia returns to Australia and heads north for the Betr Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley, June 14 – 16, the scene of Wood’s sensational performance taking pole, three race victories and a lap record in 2023.
