Aron Shields took victory in an enthralling final race at The Bend Motorsport Park, for the penultimate round of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge season.

TekworkX Motorsport teammate Hamish Fitzsimmons was also impressive across the weekend, as he jumped to fourth in the championship in his rookie season. Nash Morris battled illness all weekend, missing a large portion of the running.

Qualifying saw Fitzsimmons nail his best result of the season with the fourth fastest time while Shields locked in 10^th on the grid.

Shields was quick to move forward, rising to sixth on the opening lap from where he would go on to finish in fifth. Fitzsimmons had a strong race, running with the leading group and finishing in fourth. A post-race penalty for weaving after the Safety Car lights went out dropped Fitzsimmons to seventh.

A clean race two saw the pair finish where they started with Shields in fifth and Fitzsimmons in seventh.

Race three was a wild one, with rain falling and a slippery track for the start of the 45 minute Endurance Cup race. Shields had a blinding start, swooping around the outside of turn one to take third place, and it wasn’t long before Shields had taken the race lead. A spin from a lapped car cost the #116 the lead as Shields had to take evasive action, relegating him to third where he would cross the line. Post-race penalties for incidents from the leading pair promoted Shields to the race victory.

Fitzsimmons had his first taste of wet conditions in a race car, adapting quickly to sit 10^th as the track began to dry out. As one of the fastest cars on track, he moved back forward to reclaim sixth place and was later classified fourth after the post-race penalties. Fitzsimmons is just 16 points off the lead in the Endurance Cup standings, with one race left to go, and 60 points on offer.

The Sprint Challenge season concludes at the Bathurst International from November 10-12.

Quotes:
Aron Shields
“It was a great comeback for us after qualifying,” said Shields.

“We were a bit out of position down in 10^th, but we were able to move forward pretty consistently across the weekend. It took me a little bit to come back up to speed at the start of the weekend, but I also knew our cars tend to be quite good in the races and that certainly was the case again this round.

“It was tough at the beginning of that last race with the moisture on track, but after a few laps of sliding around we got some good grip back and it was a proper dry race from there. Initially I was disappointed to have lost the win on the track, but awesome to get it in the end,” concluded Shields.

Hamish Fitzsimmons
“We got qualifying right, which is something that’s been tricky for us this year,” said Fitzsimmons.

“It felt like a tough weekend for us after that though, we struggled with a bit of car speed. I think not enough laps and experience for me, in my first year, around a real high commitment circuit. We collected good points though, and it certainly wasn’t a bad round.

“The wet start was a bit sketchy, I just didn’t know what to expect really. I sort of tiptoed around a little bit and started to get into it, and once it dried we had good speed initially but then dropped off just a bit. Not to bad really, and we’re in a good spot heading to the final round,” concluded Fitzsimmons.