Defending Porsche Equity-One Carrera Cup Australia Champion Dylan O’Keeffe says his confidence has been boosted by a third-place finish in the final race of the series’ fifth round at the Repco Bathurst 1000 on the weekend.
The weekend started on a promising note, with O’Keeffe lining up fourth and fifth on the grid for the first two races, based on his two fastest laps in qualifying.
“In qualifying, I felt we could have been more aggressive with our setup – we were losing a lot of time over the top of the Mountain, so to score a couple of top five results and only be a couple of tenths off pole wasn’t a bad outcome,” O’Keeffe said.
O’Keeffe made a brilliant start in Race 1 and ran as high as second in the first corner, but lost out on the run up Mountain Straight into Griffin’s Bend and was shuffled back to sixth.
“I didn’t quite end up in the right track position on the first lap; it’s always tricky if you’re on the outside at Griffin’s Bend because the camber of the road falls away and there’s just no grip out there,” O’Keeffe said.
“After that, I was blocked by another competitor and just wasn’t able to get past.”
The start of Race 2 was marred by a technical problem with the start lights, which resulted in several drivers colliding on the grid; the race was red-flagged while the damaged cars were removed, and by the time it restarted there was only time for a couple of laps.
“The start was strange, and could have been catastrophic,” O’Keeffe said.
“The yellow lights were flashing as we rolled onto the grid, so some drivers realised it was an aborted start, but then the red lights went on and off very quickly, so the other drivers thought the race had started and they took off. I was very lucky not to be hit from behind.”
In the two laps that were remaining, O’Keeffe made an authoritative move into the Chase to pick up fourth position.
Starting fifth on the grid for the final race, O’Keeffe moved up to fourth on the opening lap, before another fine manoeuvre at Murray’s Corner elevated him to third.
“Race 3 was much better, and really where we should have been all weekend,” O’Keeffe said.
“I was just as fast, if not faster than the leaders once I had clear track, which is a good confidence boost for myself and the RAM Motorsport/GWR Australia team heading into the final two rounds.”
The penultimate round of the Carrera Cup will be held at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, 23-25 October.
Porsche Carrera Cup Round 5 Results Summary
Race 1 qualifying: 4th
Race 2 qualifying: 5th
Race 1: 6th
Race 2: 4th
Race 3: 3rd
Overall: 5th
Porsche Carrera Cup Championship Points
- Harri Jones – 729
- David Russell – 494
- Clay Osborne – 491
- Aaron Love – 423
- Dylan O’Keeffe – 420
- Lachlan Bloxsom – 381
- Angelo Mouzouris – 367
- Glen Wood – 363
- Max Geoghegan – 334
- Marcos Flack – 259
