David Russell and Danny Stutterd have fought back in race three at the Australian Grand Prix, to secure a strong finish for TekworkX Motorsport at the opening round of the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Championship in 2024.

Driving the Hire A Hubby Porsche, Russell showed his pace from the outset with the third fastest time in the weekend’s sole practice session. Qualifying was heavily punctuated by red flags and local yellows, impacting Russell’s ability to set a representative time, leaving the #2 10^th on the grid for race one and sixth for race two.

The opening race of the weekend demonstrated the tricky passing nature of the Albert Park Circuit, but Russell powered through to eighth place despite two Safety Car interventions limiting the race to 13 laps.

A minor brush with the tyre bundle at turn one in race two unfortunately resulted in a DNF, with the radiator damaged from the contact.

The race three grid was set by combined points from the first two races, which left Russell to fight from 13^th on the grid. Some expert driving saw Russell dodge an incident at turn one to emerge in eighth after the first lap. Once racing resumed the progress continued for the TekworkX driver, who brilliantly pushed his way forwards to record a fourth-place finish.

In Pro-Am, Stutterd was able to pick up from where he left off at the final round of the 2023 season. After demonstrating strong speed in the first two races, Stutterd kicked off the final race from eighth in class. In a display demonstrating his years of experience, Stutterd charged forward to finish third in Pro-Am, after a lengthy battle for second in class.

Round two of the Championship will see TekworkX Motorsport compete overseas for the first time, as part of the ITM Taupo 400 in New Zealand from April 19-21.

Quotes:
David Russell – #2 Hire A Hubby Porsche
“In qualifying it’s happened before, it’s a characteristic of the track where you can get those reds,” said Russell.

“I was fortunate to get enough of a clear run, but we were doing it on fast forward of trying to warm everything up. One thing that became very evident during the opening race is it is very difficult on the high speed to follow cars closely, you get a lot of front wash where you keep turning and nothing’s happening.

“As for race three, I’ve been around long enough to know that there’s certain races that just have that feeling about them and that was certainly one of them. Just to survive and to know that you had to make the most of any opportunities that came up. It’s very important to make sure we can load our car safely in the container to go Taupo, so for me it was all about making sure we brought the car home without a mark on it.

“We got some points back, but we’re going to fight back now and get ourselves back into the championship hunt. The only way to do that is to finish races and be up the front,” concluded Russell.