Gaunt second after first round of Porsche Carrera Cup Australia

New Zealand’s Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge champion Daniel Gaunt has taken two second placings and a fourth at the weekend’s opening round of the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia to sit second overall in the 2011 standings.

The first of seven rounds in the re-inaugurated series, Gaunt languished in the pre-race qualifying at the Formula 1™ Qantas Australian Grand Prix weekend before climbing back to championship contention in the Seek Porsche 997.

Starting from fourth spot for the series opening race, he finished fifth in what would be the 26-year-old’s lowest point of the weekend. Surging to third in the opening lap of the second race, fortune fell further in his favour to finish second.

Again on the front-row for the final eight-lap support category race to the Formula 1 opening round, Gaunt finished just behind former champion and now series leader Craig Baird.

“We certainly had some good pace – on a par with Bairdo, which we weren’t at the beginning of the weekend. So I’m pretty happy with that; we couldn’t ask for a better weekend given just over a week ago we weren’t doing any of this. We took delivery of the car on Monday so we had a lot to learn and do in a short space of time. During the weekend we got the fundamental setup changes heading in the right direction and the results just got better,” said Gaunt.

“In qualifying we should have been a little higher up on the grid, but as a team we just didn’t get it all together. Although that’s the benefit of working with an established group, as a team Triple X Motorsport pulled together and I can’t thank the guys enough. Ian McNabb, Adam Fisher and Todd Bickerton – I don’t think I’ve seen them work so hard, and just on one car. As well as Seek – the online job search network, Bob Forbes at MPD Dairy Products, Shane McKillen and Michael Morton – for making it all happen.”

“We’ve still got a lot more to do to keep our campaign going, but I’m sure it’ll be easier after such a good result first up. As long as we keep working hard I’m sure we can carry it forward to an even better result.”

Returning to New Zealand in the interim, the Triple X Motorsport team will fly to Perth in Western Australia at the end of April for the series second round at Barbagallo 29 April to 1 May. Joining the team’s line-up will be Hamilton based Ant Pedersen.

# # #

Photo image (attached): Daniel Gaunt in the Seek Porsche 997 finished second overall at the first round of the 2011 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia to now sit second in the championship standings behind Craig Baird.

Race results:

Race 1
Pos ,Car ,Driver ,Entrant ,Time
1,7,Jonny Reid ,McElrea Racing ,15:28.2
2,1,Craig Baird ,Dutton Insurance Racing ,15:29.0
3,12,Steven Richards ,Laser Racing ,15:30.5
4,60,Mark Skaife ,L'Oreal Men Expert ,15:31.4
5,27,Daniel Gaunt ,Triple X Motorsport ,15:31.7

Race 2
Pos ,Car ,Driver ,Entrant ,Time
1,1,Craig Baird ,Dutton Insurance Racing ,15:58.7
2,27,Daniel Gaunt ,Triple X Motorsport ,16:08.4
3,12,Steven Richards ,Laser Racing ,16:09.3
4,20,Ben Barker ,Team BRM/Total ,16:10.0
5,60,Mark Skaife ,L'Oreal Men Expert ,16:10.2

Race 3
Pos ,Car ,Driver ,Entrant ,Time
1,1,Craig Baird ,Dutton Insurance Racing ,16:04.4
2,27,Daniel Gaunt ,Triple X Motorsport ,16:06.0
3,12,Steven Richards ,Laser Racing ,16:07.8
4,60,Mark Skaife ,L'Oreal Men Expert ,16:10.1
5,29,Michael Patrizi ,McElrea Racing ,16:10.5

Full race results can be found on: http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?27/03/2011.APGP

2011 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia race schedule
Round 1 AGP 24-27 March
Round 2 Perth 29April-1 May
Round 3 Townsville 8-10 July
Round 4 Phillip Island 16-18 September
Round 5 Bathurst 6-9 October
Round 6 Gold Coast 21-23 October
Round 7 Sydney 2-4 December

www.xxxmotorsport.co.nz