Chris Alajajian has taken race 1 victory in the Hertz MINI Challenge - delivered by Pizza Capers at this weekend's Sydney Telstra 500.
In a shortened, four lap affair Alajajian began from pole and held his leading position to the chequered flag to take victory over championship rival Paul Stokell and extended his series lead to 39.5 with just two races remaining this year. Stokell got off to a flyer from P3 and immediately passed Spanish driver Javier Villa who was swamped by the 5-times Australian champion, to then be hauled in by 2-time V8 Supercar champion Glenn Seton who finished third for the race.
Nineteen-year-old Sean Carter's fight for third overall in the series took a harsh blow when the youngster speared into the wall at turn-8 causing extensive damage to the front right and handing him no points with a DNF finish. With Peter McNiven heading home in fifth the young Victorian is all but assured third place in the series with Carter still a mathematical chance to snatch the final rostrum step 40 points behind.
Unfortunately it wasn't all smiles with a further two competitors not finishing race 1 which was raced under dampish conditions due to early morning rain. Allan Jarvis retired with rear-right damage to his MINI R56 while Grant Doulman was forced to retire with front end damage which caused over-heating in his machinery.
The CXC entry of Dylan Thomas also encountered trouble when his car became down on power after 3 laps, but the Sydneysider was fortunate enough to limp the car over the line and claim points in 14th. Drive of the race went to Beric Lynton who finished ninth after starting from the rear of the grid. John Modystach's eight place result will see him start from the front of the grid for this afternoon's race 2 at 17.35 with the reverse-grid rules coming into play.
Race 1 results - Sydney Telstra 500
Pos.Sponsor Driver Diff to Next
1 JAXQuickfit Tyres Chris Alajajian - 2 DecoRug RacingPaul Stokell +1.1s 3 Pizza Capers Glenn Seton +1.2s 4 MINI Spain Javier Villa +2.3s 5 Superchare Batteries Peter McNiven +1.5s 6 MINI Spain Jose Manuel De Los Milagros +2.1s 7 Squawking Magpie Wines Gavin Yortt +4.6s 8 Prosurv Racing John Modystach +0.9s 9 Bruce Lynton MINI Garage Beric Lynton +10.5s 10 Transquip Hire/ABC Autogear Brendan Cook +1.0s 11 thesupportersclub.com Chris Wootton +1.4s 12 Fiji Water Aaron Zerefos +1.2s 13 Box & Lock Storage Rob Knight +7.6s 14 CXC Dylan Thomas +1m DNF Plan4Growth/ON TIME EARTH Sean Carter DNF DNF iSeek Allan Jarvis DNF DNF Doulman Motorsport Grant Doulman DNF
