Nick McBride has completed a spectacular clean sweep of race wins at the opening round of the 2019 Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia season in Adelaide while Anthony Gilbertson claimed the TAG Heuer Pro-Am round victory despite an impressive final race from newcomer Liam Talbot.
McBride replicated his impressive form from the opening two races in Sunday’s final race. In a carbon copy of race one and race two, McBride held the lead into the opening corner and maintained his position at the front to the finish.
The round win was McBride’s second on the streets of Adelaide, though in contrast this weekend’s performance, his first Adelaide event victory in 2016 came without scoring a single race win.
“This round couldn’t have gone any better. Porsche Centre Melbourne has given me a car that allowed me to carry on from where I left off in the Gold Coast last year and it’s just been a perfect race weekend. We’ve been fast all weekend from practice; I felt really comfortable in the car and it showed in the results,” said McBride.
“The Australian Grand Prix is my home event so I’ve got a lot of family and friends coming out for that one. I’ve had some good results there in the past; though leading and spraying it off the track on the safety car restart last year wasn’t ideal, but I really enjoy the track.”
Three second-place finishes handed David Wall second for the weekend, while Dale Wood was equally as consistent with three third-place finishes, holding off Jordan Love in the final race to claim his third top-three result for the weekend.
Warren Luff placed fourth for the round from Jordan Love, who was the winning Michelin Junior for the opening event of the season.
The battle for the TAG Heuer Pro-Am was closer than the action at the front, with Liam Talbot taking the race three class win to conclude his first event in the championship in style. However second place in class for Anthony Gilbertson in race three was enough to secure the South Australian an emotional home race win.
“This is a dream come true. I grew up just down the road and I used to come here for Formula 1 all the time. Unfortunately I moved up to Queensland but I still call this place home, so to get a round win here, I can’t imagine topping that apart from winning the Pro-Am championship,” said Gilbertson. Talbot secured second on the TAG Heuer Pro-Am podium, while Stephen Grove recovered from a difficult start to the round to secure third in class.
McBride’s Adelaide dominance sees him lead the outright standings by 18 points from Wall, with Wood a further 18 points further adrift.
Gilbertson now enters round two with an 18-point lead in the TAG Heuer Pro-Am standings with Grove 36 points further adrift in third.
Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia will return in just two weeks for round two of the 2019 championship at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.