Mitsubishi Evo X driver Harrison Cooper and BMW M4 pilot Simon Hodges shared the race victories in Round 4 of the NSW Production Touring Cars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park, 6-7 August, while Liam Cade bounced back from a disappointing third round to move back into the championship lead.
Class X driver Hodges qualified on pole position and led most of the way in Race 1, but was overtaken late by Cooper.
In Race 2, Hodges led from the start and set some scorching lap times as he pulled clear of Cooper, breaking Dylan Thomas’ 2016 race lap record by some 1.5 seconds. However, the advantage swung back to Cooper in Race 3, as the Evo driver took the win by five seconds, also winning Class A1.
A consistent Dimitri Agathos was third outright (second in Class A1) in all three races. However, with only two entrants in Class A1 for the weekend, Agathos was limited in the number of points he could score and he thus relinquished the points lead to Liam Cade, who drove his VW Golf to finishes of third, second and first in Class D across the three races.
With a total of eight entrants in Class D, more points were available to Cade over the weekend and he moved back to the top of the points table, having previously relinquished the lead at the night-time enduro race meeting in June when his clutch failed.
In Class A2, Brian Callaghan was first in Races 1 and 2 but failed to finish Race 3, handing Robert Coulthard the win.
Class B1 honours went to Adam Gosling, who finished an impressive sixth outright in Race 3 aboard his Honda Civic Type R.
In Class B2, Glen Wilson won the first race but the experienced Tony Virag – recovering from a clutch failure which ruled him out of Race 1 – fought back to win Races 2 and 3, with fourth outright in the final.
Zane Gibson won all three races in Class C in his VW Polo.
The next round of the NSW Production Touring Cars Championship will be held at the ARDC Super 70 race meeting on 3-4 September.
NSW Production Touring Cars – Top 10 State Championship points (overall)
- Liam Cade – 168
- Dimitri Agathos – 154
- Michael Ferns – 150
- Harrison Cooper – 148
- Adam Gosling – 148
- Matthew Boylan – 146
- Rob Coulthard – 142
- Andrew McMaster – 142
- Stewart Follows – 140
- Simon Hodges – 128
