Shane Smollen has finished the opening round of the 2010 Australian GT Series, steering his way to pleasing results in the Autohaus Hamilton prepared Porsche 997. The Sydney based driver finished Adelaide???s Clipsal round in 14th overall, placing him??third in the GT Challenge points on his debut at the 3.2 km circuit.
Smollen was the second Challenge car home in an eventful race one, but a 22 second penalty relegated him back to fifth for involvement in a slight bingle in the closing laps of the race. The 997 Cupcar suffered radiator damage in the contact and Smollen forfeited a position in order to nurse the car to the finish 14th overall, with the penalty putting him back to 18th.
Race two saw Smollen fight back to second position within the Challenge category, with an overall placing of 13th. In race three, Smollen maintained his Challenge position of second, however three Championship cars passed him, putting him back to 16thoverall.
??e???re stoked with the weekend. I came here not knowing the track so we did our homework with a bit of help from Jonathan Webb, then made the most of practice sessions before.??/p>
Round two will be contested in Melbourne in two weeks’ time at the Australian Grand Prix. Smollen remains confident about the event, despite having never raced the circuit.
?? think it will be a great experience, and personally I can???t wait. We had a good weekend this weekend so we???re excited about the next round and hoping to continue the season like this.??/p>
Shane Smollen thanks: