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Mawson beats Golding in Phillip Island thriller
JOEY MAWSON and James Golding have engaged in a wheel to wheel battle to decide the second round of the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship at Phillip Island, the defending champion coming out on top.
Sharing the front row in the winner-takes-all finale, Golding made the initial jump from pole position and looked to have Mawson covered on the run to turn one.
RACE RESULTS: S5000, Phillip Island, Race 3
However, Mawson committed hard at the high-speed turn one and sent his Form 700 / ALABAR Team BRM entry around the outside of Golding’s Valvoline GRM machine in a high-speed move that ultimately paid off.
The field got to turn four before drama struck, young-gun Blake Purdie making contact with the rear of Zane Goddard’s entry on the run into the braking zone.
The contact broke the left-front corner of his car and sent him out of control into the path of Shae Davies’ Versa Motorsport car, an innocent victim within the accident.
The race spent several laps behind the Safety Car before a restart, one that saw Golding apply serious pressure to the leader.
Mawson defended stoutly – at one point receiving a sportsmanship flag for blocking – before gradually easing away on the final lap to break any aero tow that Golding might find.
After a close final lap, Mawson held on to edge out Golding in a thriller to claim his fifth Gold Star win, second of the season and move right back into championship calculations following a challenging conclusion to the opening round of the championship at Symmons Plains.
Trailing the two contenders home was Versa Motorsport’s Cooper Webster, who scored his second straight feature race podium finish of the season.
Webster followed the two leaders throughout the race, however didn’t quite have the performance to challenge for the race lead.
After claiming another win on Saturday, Tim Macrow was a solid fourth in the feature race, doing enough to accumulate points to – just – retain his championship lead.
Fifth was Zane Goddard, his most promising run in his debut S5000 weekend, while Kaleb Ngatoa and Adam Garwood completed the finishers.
The latter had earlier passed the young Kiwi for position six, however later spun on his own at turn two and subsequently surrendered the position.
Purdie and Davies failed to restart following their lap one, turn four impact.
The varied Phillip Island results see Tim Macrow clinging on to the championship lead heading into the next round at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, however his margin has been scythed down to just a single point.
Joey Mawson’s key victory lifts the defending champion to second, while James Golding and Cooper Webster both find themselves three points from the lead, tied in third.
The S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship field will return in three weeks at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, with a full 17-strong field set to take part in the third round of the Gold Star battle.