REID FAST IN DEBUT CARRERA CUP AUSTRALIA

Kiwi, Jonny Reid has made his mark on what will be his first season in the Australian Carrera Cup Championship by winning Race 1 at the Qantas Australian Grand Prix and finishing up fourth overall for the weekend in a field of 21 Porsche 997 GT3’s.

Reid set the benchmark early by putting his Simjen/Giltrap Group Cup Car on pole position in qualifying, an impressive feat in itself considering Reid had only driven the Albert Park street circuit once before in a Formula Ford in 2003.

He faced off against stiff competition, including past Carrera Cup Champion Craig Baird, V8 Supercar Champion Mark Skaife and current NZ Porsche GT3 Cup Champion Daniel Gaunt among other top Australian drivers.

Starting from pole in Race 1, Reid shot to an early lead and led every lap of the race, although the finish was not to be an exciting run to the line, as the six-lap race finished under the control of the safety car, following Reid’s team-mate Michael Patrizi’s heavy crash into the wall after Turn 11.

“I’m really looking forward to the rest of the championship now after such a good start” said Reid after Race 1.

“It’s started off way better than what I could have asked for,” he said.

Things took a turn for the worst for Reid during the remainder of the weekend. Baird got an excellent start in Race 2 and squeezed past Reid off the line, leading the race to the finish. Reid however remained comfortable in second place until he lost drive on the final lap and dropped to sixth.

Reid was fired up for Race 3, however an early race incident involving fellow front-runner Ben Barker saw the pair spin out of contention with Barker recovering to finish ninth while Reid fought to get home in 16th to wrap up his weekend 4th overall.

The next round of the Carrera Cup Championship will be held at Barbagallo Raceway in Perth, where the series is set to introduce a variety of race formats for the remainder of the 2011 season.

Carrera Cup Australia is guaranteed one hour of racing at each V8 Supercar event, allowing flexibility to tweak its race formats each time.

At Albert Park, three 20-minute-races were held. This format is likely to remain at some rounds, but the category administrators are considering other formats, including two 30-minute-races or a short race and a longer race. The series gets live TV coverage in Australia at each round, which will dictate what race formats will be for each weekend.