Reid wins in Perth

Kiwi driver Jonny Reid has won his first Australian Carrera Cup round at Barbagallo Raceway in Perth at the weekend.

As a support event to the V8 Supercars, the 2011 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia kicked off with the opening round at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in March, where Reid won the opening race of the weekend, and has now backed up his pace with two more race wins and overall honours for Round 2, shifting him up to third in the points for the series.

Reid found qualifying difficult on the 2.4km track where he struggled to get a clear run due to slower traffic, only managing fourth quickest, placing his Simjen / Giltrap Group Porsche 997 on the second row for the opening race.

However he got on with the job off the line and shot through to second place behind Steven Richards where he immediately started putting pressure on in the 17 lap race.

“I was feeling confident with the car and felt that I could have got Richards, however I was held up as we started to catch lapped traffic and had to settle for second place” said Reid.

Starting from the front row for Race 2, Reid got another excellent start and catapulted through into the lead ahead of Richards with Craig Baird close behind, where he controlled the race to take the win.

“This championship is all about getting the most out of your tyres” said Reid. “I was fortunate to get through into the lead early in the race and although Baird was close behind, I concentrated on not pushing 100% and looking after my tyres for the last race.”

With the race win, Reid was then awarded pole position for Race 3, however didn’t get as good a start as in the previous two races, allowing Baird to slip ahead where he led for the first few laps.

“Although I had pole, at Barbagallo this is the dirty side of the track and its harder to get grip off the line” Said Reid “I knew I could get Baird and had a go, although as I was passing, a yellow flag was shown so I had to back out of the move.”

“A few laps later I made the same move and passed Baird and saw that Richards came through as well.”
The tables were turned from Race 1 and this time it was Richards putting pressure on Reid for the win, however Reid held his place to take first place and secure the round win.

“I could see Richards in my mirrors, so I put the hammer down and did what I needed to do to get over the line in front.”

Reid won the weekend with Richards in 2nd and Baird in 3rd. Richards now leads the championship ahead of Baird, Reid, Daniel Gaunt and Ben Barker.