Dylan O’Keeffe has kicked off his 2025 Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia campaign with a podium result, guiding his Dexion Porsche to a trio of third-place finishes at Sydney Motorsport Park to finish third overall for the weekend.
After topping Friday’s practice times, O’Keeffe and the RAM Motorsport/GWR Australia team were greeted with substantially warmer conditions for qualifying on Saturday, with O’Keeffe qualifying fourth for Races 1 and 2.
“We didn’t quite nail the setup for the track conditions, which meant we qualified a bit further back than we planned,” O’Keeffe said.
Despite starting all three races from fourth position, some incisive passing moves saw O’Keeffe gaining positions in each race; in Race 1, he made a move a Turn 2 just after a Safety Car restart, in Race 2 he capitalised on a mistake for another competitor at Turn 8, and in Race 3 he took advantage of strong cold tyre pace to execute a pass at Turn 6.
“One of the areas we identified for improvement coming into this season was my performance on cold tyres, so the fact I was able to attack on the first lap or just after a Safety Car is a good sign that we’ve made some gains in that department,” O’Keeffe said.
“The biggest disappointment was qualifying; having to start fourth made each race tough, if we had been on the front row, I feel like we had the race pace to be battling for wins.
“However, to finish the first round on the podium is still a good outcome compared to the last few seasons, where we’ve lost a lot of points early and then spent the rest of the year playing catch-up.
“The car is fast, it’s in one piece and I’m looking forward to the next round in a few weeks.”
Round 2 of the Carrera Cup will be held at the Australian Grand Prix, 13-16 March.
Carrera Cup Round 1 Results Summary
Race 1 qualifying: 4th
Race 2 qualifying: 4th
Race 1: 3rd
Race 2: 3rd
Race 3: 3rd
Overall: 3rd
Carrera Cup Top 10 Points
- Harri Jones – 181
- Bayley Hall – 150
- Dylan O’Keeffe – 144
- Oscar Targett – 138
- Marco Giltrap – 104
- Dale Wood – 100
- Caleb Sumich – 73
- David Russell – 67
- Marcos Flack – 67
- Glen Wood – 57