GWR Australia Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup Australia racer Duvashen Padayachee has cemented his spot in the top 10 at the series’ half-way mark, despite an unfortunate incident prematurely ending his run in Round 4 at Hidden Valley today.
After qualifying 11th, Padayachee improved to ninth in Race 1, and was satisfied with the speed of his Porsche.
A slow start in Race 2 caused Padayachee to lose several places off the line, but some deft overtaking moves and some swift evasive action to avoid several incidents enabled him to recover to 12th at the finish.
Padayachee was hoping to claw his way back inside the top 10 in Race 3, but became an innocent victim in a multi-car collision on the opening lap of the race, which caused race-ending damage to his Hyundai Forklifts Australia entry.
“In qualifying, there were a couple of corners where I was losing some time, so I worked on my technique for Race 1 and our pace was strong enough to be running with the leaders,” Padayachee said.
“Unfortunately, my launch in Race 2 was not ideal and I fell back quite a few places, but again my speed was good enough for me to be able to overtake cars.
“In Race 3, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and sustained contact from some other cars, which put me out of the race.”
The GWR team will transport Padayachee’s car back to their Sydney base to assess the damage, and ensure the car is fully repaired ahead of the next Carrera Cup round at Townsville in three weeks.
Despite the unfortunate end to the weekend, Padayachee scored enough points to improve to 10th in the points, and is optimistic about his chances for the remainder of the season.
“I’ve been referring to a lot of Cameron Hill’s data, and he had a very strong weekend with a pole and a race win, so it’s been a very useful benchmark,” Padayachee said.
“A goal for me now is to qualify better so I’m less likely to be caught up in mid-pack incidents.”
Carrera Cup Points – Outright
- Dale Wood – 640
- Jordan Love – 475
- Nick McBride – 468
- David Wall – 463
- Warren Luff – 439
- Cameron Hill – 436
- Michael Almond – 423
- Thomas Maxwell – 289
- Cooper Murray – 286
- Duvashen Padayachee – 205
