Max Vidau’s spectacular fightback from a race one puncture has capped off a fast weekend in Sandown for the TekworkX Motorsport Carrera Cup crew.

A busy Friday programme saw qualifying shortly after the two practice sessions. Vidau qualified third fastest, missing out on pole by a tenth of a second. Thomas Maxwell was 15^th, while Pro-Am Danny Stutterd put himself eighth in class.

Vidau was deemed to have impeded another car in qualifying, and so lined up from sixth on the grid for race one. While running in fourth on lap two the right rear tyre on Vidau’s Tyrepower Porsche popped of the bead through the chicane, sending Vidau backwards into the fence. The impact knocked the rear wing off the car, forcing an early retirement from the race after limping back to the pits.

Maxwell employed an alternate tyre strategy, running his fresh set of tyres for the opening race. The Spitwater car quickly moved through the field, picking up four places to finish in 11^th. Stutterd had been enjoying a strong race in Pro-Am, but a late spin left him classified as a DNF.

The Endurance Cup race ran for 28 laps, with Vidau coming from 17^th on the grid. It was a clinical performance from the South Australian who carved his way through the field, consistently lapping as the fastest car, to gain 10 places and finish in seventh. Maxwell was on older tyres and battled extremely hard to maintain his place in the order against cars on fresh tyres, finishing in 10^th. Stutterd came home eighth in Pro-Am after starting from the back.

Race three was shortened to just 12 laps after a lengthy Safety Car period for a lap one incident. All three of the team’s drivers did well to avoid the crash, picking their way through cleanly. It left Vidau seventh, Maxwell ninth and Sutterd eighth in Pro-Am for the restart. Vidau was able to move up to fifth in the few laps that remained. Maxwell set faster laps than every car in front of him, in the run to the end, but ran out of time to make use of that speed as he finished in seventh. Stutterd capitalised well on the short sprint to finish sixth in class.

Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup returns from October 5-8 at Mount Panorama for round six of the eight round calendar.

Quotes:
Max Vidau
“As always, the crew gave me a mega fast car,” said Vidau.

“We qualified well and put ourselves up the front, the penalty was unfortunate, but it didn’t have an effect in the end as we got a good start in the first race and put ourselves back in that leading group. Just a bit of bad luck unfortunately with the tyre blowing out and throwing us on the back foot. The boys did an amazing job to get it fixed and we had a really strong second race.

“Had to take a bit of evasive action in that last one, which let a few cars get by us, but we clawed our way back to fifth. We pulled off about 15 overtakes and came from the back to the top five, in a field where it’s been extremely difficult to pass all year, so we can’t complain about that. We’ll roll out another fast car in Bathurst and see if we can make it all click,” concluded Vidau.

Thomas Maxwell
“Qualifying was a strange one for us, we’re still scratching our heads a bit over that one,” said Maxwell.

“We probably tuned the car to be comfortable, and around here it’s not a comfortable lap that gives you the speed. We didn’t get a good opportunity to think about it overnight with qualifying running on Friday, so put ourselves on the back foot there.

“We made progress all weekend in the races, and showed we had the speed. Just need to make sure we roll out like that at the next one, it’s no fun starting at the back and no one likes it. We’ll have a big think, work on it, and come out swinging at Bathurst,” concluded Maxwell.