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Herne sweeps debut S5000 street fight
NATHAN HERNE has swept the opening round of the S5000 Tasman Series on the streets of Surfers Paradise, backing up his race one with with two further successes on Sunday in Queensland.
He stormed to a comfortable win in race two on Sunday morning, but then had to battle Joey Mawson in the closing stages of the race three decider.
Mawson had made a better start than his weekend-long rival in race three and the pair went wheel to wheel into the first chicane.
With the pair almost banging wheels, Mawson had to take the short cut through the escape road and emerged in the race lead by the time they raced into turn four.
Race control instructed the double champion to give the position back to Herne, who then was able to gradually pull away to another race win.
Mawson completed a solid weekend with a trio of second positions, but also leaves with the new outright lap record on the Gold Coast street circuit.
His 1m09.4981s best set on the last lap of race two stands as the quickest ever lap of the shortened Surfers Paradise circuit and as such, the outright lap record.
As a result of the pair locking out the three races, Herne leads Mawson 130-112 in the championship standings following the opening round of the Tasman Series.
Ben Bargwanna finished third overall, including grabbing third in race two on Sunday morning.
He crossed the line fourth in the feature race, however was promoted to third position post-race after Jordan Boys’ was penalised for a track limits breech as the pair battled for position at turn one.
Despite his penalty, Boys’ completed a solid weekend in the Boost Mobile car to finish fourth, a strong comeback today a stout recovery following a pair of off-track excursions down at turn 11 on Saturday.
After his Qualifying crash, Cooper Webster was one of the stars of Sunday’s show as he was forced to come from the back of the field on two occasions.
Starting ninth for Race 2, he carved through the field to finish fourth and on the tail of third-placed Ben Bargwanna.
The final race was a tougher affair for the Versa Motorsport driver as he enjoyed a lengthy battle with Noah Sands to ultimately finish in fifth position.
The race-one non start was costly for the Victorian, sitting only seventh in the standings and behind Sands and Jude Bargwanna.
The debut of S5000 on a street circuit proved a resounding success, with the field completing three, 17-lap races without a single safety car or delay.
The addition of the push-to-pass system featured throughout the weekend and allowed for additional overtaking that may not have occurred otherwise – and valuable defensive options as well.
The S5000 Tasman Series returns at the VALO Adelaide 500 this December 1-4.
UNOFFICIAL STANDINGS – After 3 of 6 Races, S5000 Tasman Series
- Nathan Herne 139
- Joey Mawson 112
- Jordan Boys 87
- Ben Bargwanna 84
- Noah Sands 68
- Jude Bargwanna 63
- Cooper Webster 57
- Mark Rosser 53
- Elly Morrow 46