THR TTM 2025 — Round 5, Mount Panorama Circuit — 14th December 2025
After the fourth round in the harbour of New Zealand's capital did its best to deplete the spare part inventory of the TTM teams, the circus moved on to the spiritual home of motorsport in Australia: the legendary Mount Panorama Circuit. With a little over six iconic kilometers that wind their way up and down Mount Panorama with an elevation change of 174 m and gradients of up to 16%, every single corner breathes history.
Based on the real-world weather forecast on site, the weather for qualifying was surprisingly mild at 27°C with a wind of 17 km/h from the west. For the race on 14th December 2025, the asphalt was considerably warmer and the wind became more difficult to deal with, featuring gusts of up to 52 km/h. The superb live broadcast by Microlin100 was sadly cut short by a power outage in the final minutes of the race, depriving viewers of a stunning finale in the battle for the win.
On race day, the drama peaked, resulting in a record four protests for race control to deal with, resulting in penalties against three drivers. As the checkered flag dropped, four manufacturers found themselves in the Top 4. HappyKojot scored his second win of the season in his mighty Ford Sierra RS500, beating sensational pole sitter Kuba Palubicki in the BMW by 3 seconds. Adam Celárek completed the podium in his Holden Commodore, and Alfa Romeo privateer Boby Vakuinof achieved his season-best 4th place.
Qualifying: Palubicki Conquers Pole Position on two Wheels
After he missed Round 4, Kuba Palubicki returned to the TTM field in style at Bathurst. With his third pole position of the season, the Netherlands-based BMW driver underlined his ambitions once again. The Linder Rennsport driver went straight to the top of the field at 02:12.624, beating even the legendary qualifying performance of Dick Johnson with a 680 hp Sierra RS500 in the 1992 Bathurst 1000 shootout.
The next four cars were split by less than one tenth of a second: HappyKojot 2nd in the Ford, Boby Vakuinof 3rd in the Alfa, Florian Masse with his best qualifying performance of the season in 4th, and then the Mercedes-Benz 190E of Ayrton Titos. His team mate Marc Orós from Simruina Racing Team III completed the third row, and Adam Celárek qualified 7th in the best Holden. Behind him, a swarm of four Alfa Romeos waited behind him to pounce as soon as the lights would go out: Stevenson, Diner, Knechtel, Willphaizer.
The best Nissan was directly behind them: FMG in 12th place. Meanwhile, Audi's disappointing season continued with the 25th and 28th starting positions. Three new faces joined the grid in Bathurst and qualified as follows:
#60 Richard Rossier (Swiss Buddy Racing Mercedes 190E): 27th place
#54 David Schubert (SG Stern Mercedes 190E): 29th place
#43 Eetu Karjunen (privateer BMW M3): 31st place
The race
Chaotic Start produces Trail of Desctruction
With the race taking place in fantastic weather, everything was prepared for a great race. However, the start immediately rivalled the surprisingly large mayhem of the previous round, because three of the top 4 qualified drivers failed to get off the line properly. In the first row, HappyKojot managed to stall his Ford Sierra RS500, forcing Florian Masse to take evasive action where his engine promptly fell out of the boost range. Together with Boby Vakuinof, whose Alfa Romeo remained stationary for so long that Ayrton Titos in the 190E with pink mirrors sought his luck by sharply moving to the right, a very effective roadblock was formed!
As nobody else in the first two rows managed to get his car off the line properly, Kuba Palubicki sprinted towards the first turn completely uncontested. Behind him, everyone blocked each other, and two teams had team-internal collisions: at Simruina Racing Team III, Ayrton Titos forced his championship-leading team mate Marc Orós into the grass, and Jolly Club's Valentin Knechtel squeezed Attila Diner into the pit wall.
Directly behind this chaos, the rapid Nissan debutant from the previous round in Wellington then sideswiped the Alfa Romeo of Willphaizer into the pit wall after he had backed off in response to the contact between Knechtel and Diner ahead.
Willphaizer ended up in the pit wall in such an unlucky way that it abruptly decelerated and spat his car back out sideways, creating a pileup involving several other cars. For this, NeckR888 received a 30 second time penalty and 6 licence points that brought his score to 8, earning the Calsonic Team Impul driver a start from the pits for the subsequent final round of the season.Having redressed the position to his Jolly Club colleague Attila Diner, Valentin Knechtel then managed to miss his braking point for the first corner, and fired his team mate's car into the wall at Hell Corner, right across the noses of Florian Masse and Ayrton Titos. With this stunning own goal for Jolly Club, Knechtel threw away an important match ball for the teams title and severely lowered Attila Diner's chances for a podium in the drivers championship.Knechtel was then hit from behind by NeckR888, who had already started a pileup on the main straight.
The victim of that collision ended up being Florian Masse, because Valentin Knechtel's Alfa Romeo got pushed into him and sent the Frenchman straight through the gravel trap. In the pit exit on the far left, Daan Vanderstukken is visible in the 28th-qualified Audi V8.The Belgian maintained fair play by waiting for the field to pass him before he got underway. With the chaos on the start line and in Hell Corner out of the way, the field entered Mountain Straight. Time to sit back and relax.Oh, nevermind. In the chaos at turn 1, FMG had to drive through the pit exit's merging lane after contact with reigning champion Jaroslav Cerny. While the British Nissan driver bounced back onto the tarmac after having had to put two wheels on the grass, the Czech BMW driver made contact with him once more while trying to grab the slipstream of Marc Orós. That sent the Nissan into the grass for a second time and forced him to back off to regain control, leading DJMD19 in the Simruina Mercedes with green mirrors to hit the back of the Nissan. Immediately afterwards, DJMD19 was hit by his Spanish compatriot Jordi Sumoy (BMW), who fired him into the wall. While FMG fought to regain control, he sideswiped the Ford of Florian Masse into the grass.Tight racing at the back of the field: Christoph Mües enters Griffin's Bend ahead of Panagiotis Mazarakis and returning 2024 entrant Eetu Karjunen. Behind him, Attila Diner began his comeback efforts after having been disposed into the turn 1 run-off area by his own team mate.First across the top of the mountain was pole sitter Kuba Palubicki, chased by Boby Vakuinof in the Alfa Romeo. Next up was Adam Celárek, who massively profited from the starting chaos and advanced from 7th to 3rd place. His team mate HappyKojot in the Ford followed in his footsteps.NeckR888 completed the early top 5, demonstrating how much he profited from his two incidents on the way into the first corner, the scars of which were worn by his car. He led a freight train of competitors down the mountain: Adam Keefe, Ayrton Titos, Nat Stevenson, Valentin Knechtel, Jaroslav Cerny, Marc Orós, Florian Masse and FMG are in the frame in the background.Arriving at The Chase for the first time, Florian Masse attempted to make a move against Jaroslav Cerny for 10th place and touched the inside curb while Cerny maintained a very tight line for having another and less agile car alongside. The two subsequently made contact and got sideways in the braking zone.While Cerny somehow managed to regain control with the assistance of his M3's ABS, the Ford's rear end slipped out of Masse's control and he skidded through the gravel trap, costing him two positions. [Photo: FMG]Just a few positions further back, the same scenario unfolded between Attila Diner and Christoph Mües.While ABS helped Mües to keep his Mercedes on track, the Jolly Club Alfa Romeo got on the grass, and Attila Diner spun across the track.Lucky to avoid further collisions, Diner dug himself out of the gravel trap and carried on. Three steps forward and eight steps back: all in all, the Jolly Club driver ended up on track another 5 places further back than where he had been at the end of the Mountain Straight. Truly a first lap to forget.Just after Diner got back underway, he witnessed the Audi of Akira hitting the back of Nico Bonnefon's BMW ahead of him, approaching Murrays Corner.While the BMW bumped into the concrete wall and carried on, Akira crossed the track in the braking zone and continued to mash the brakes, effectively brake-checking DJMD19 - the victim of the Mountain Straight chaos two minutes earlier.By the time Willphaizer entered the pit lane for repairs, Akira's Audi faced the opposite direction.
Battles throughout the field
Fueled by the frustration of having fallen victim to several collisions on the opening lap, Florian Masse missed the braking point at Griffins Bend while attempting to outbrake FMG's Nissan on Lap 2. After locking up his front right wheel for close to 50 meters, his Ford piled into the right rear corner of Jaroslav Cerny's BMW M3, leading both of them to spin out.While reigning champion Jaroslav Cerny carried on after losing 9 positions, this crash ended his last chance to stay in contention for a strong position in the drivers championship. This crash was also the last straw for the 4th-qualified Ford driver: facing the wrong direction and the prospect of having to wait for the entire field to pass through before continuing on his way, the Frenchman threw in the towel and abandoned the race.When Adam Celárek attacked Boby Vakuinof for 2nd place on the inside, he tried to brake sharply before the kink instead of trying to use more of the real estate between himself and Vakuinof to let himself take a wider cornering radius. His underdamped Holden responded to this idea by bouncing into the passenger side of the Alfa Romeo at 273 km/h ...... and spun out while Vakuinof miraculously kept his Alfa Romeo under control after flying into the gravel trap at 260 km/h.While Celárek lost 3rd place to his team mate, the Bulgarian Alfa Romeo driver returned to the track holding 2nd position on very dirty tyres.With Vakuinof struggling for traction on his dirty tyres, HappyKojot capitalized on the opportunity and advanced to 2nd place before Murrays Corner. Meanwhile, NeckR888 had advanced to 4th, and Celárek had to defend his Top 5 position around the outside against Adam Keefe.After Nat Stevenson had powered past Ayrton Titos on Mountain Straight, the Spanish Mercedes-Benz driver from Simruina Racing Team III sent his 190E down the inside of the Alfa Romeo at Forrest's Elbow.When two people quarrel, a third rejoices: Valentin Knechtel promptly picked up two positions at once on Conrod Straight, because Titos's attack on Stevenson had compromised both of their exits.The German promptly outbraked himself at The Chase, allowing both of them to get back through.The boost hit just right for Knechtel exiting Murrays Corner, allowing the German to power slide his Alfa Romeo straight into his next attack on the Spanish Mercedes-Benz driver's position.Titos tried to cover the attack by squeezing the German towards the pit wall, but the naturally aspirated 2.5L engine in his 190E was no match for 2.2 bar of boost on the Alfa Romeo's 1.76L sewing machine.Arriving at Hell Corner, FMG suddenly tried to send his Nissan down the inside of both of them but had to back out of it, allowing Titos's team mate Marc Orós to get alongside FMG on the outside.Titos then performed a master class in acting as a water carrier, boxing in FMG behind himself while letting his championship-leading team mate pass him, before still defending the position against FMG at Griffins Bend. The British Nissan driver was desperate enough to attempt launching a rather illegal pass with four wheels in the grass on Mountain Straight, but his Nissan bounced violently and he had to back out of it. Following a formal protest, Race Control deemed no further action necessary, as no harm had been done.The Nissan driver stormed past him on the run down Conrod Straight, though, and managed to stay ahead despite this valiant counterattack going into The Chase.Adam Celárek captured 4th place and then gradually pulled away from NeckR888 after outbraking the Nissan driver at Griffins Bend. By now, both of them had pulled out a sizeable margin against the cars behind.While the Top 5 continued to maintain notable margins between each car, things heated up in the second half of the Top 10. Adam Keefe increasingly got under pressure from Nat Stevenson, who still had Valentin Knechtel in his rear view mirror. Marc Orós closed the gap and kept FMG at bay. Ayrton Titos began to fall behind due to bodywork damage.The Iron Lion spits flames through the side exhaust of Adam Keefe's Holden Commodore while Knechtel captures 7th place from Nat Stevenson at Griffins Bend. In the background, FMG sent his Nissan down the inside of Marc Orós, but slightly overshot the corner.That allowed Marc Orós to bring his nose ahead again by the time the pair arrived at The Cutting.Incredibly, the pair rounded this steep curve side by side!FMG maintained the challenge all the way to Quarry before he admitted defeat.Orós quickly closed the gap to the two Alfa Romeos across the top of the mountain, and was all over the back of Stevenson's Alfa Romeo again by the time they got to Forrest's Elbow - just in time to watch them escape into the distance again, and for this game of cat and mouse to go into the next round.Another lap, another attack: FMG powers past Marc Orós on Mountain Straight once again.This time, it took the Nissan driver until The Cutting to skid off the racing line again.While FMG was busy applying plenty of opposite lock as the pair accelerated into Quarry side by side, Marc Orós recaptured the position around the outside.Moments later, Nat Stevenson lost control of his Alfa Romeo while coming down the Esses ...... and crashed into the concrete wall nearly head-on. It would appear that it is safe to say that the panoramic view in the background was the least of his concerns at this point in time.Stevenson's accident allowed Marc Orós, FMG, and Ayrton Titos to move ahead.Valentin Knechtel eventually caught up with Adam Keefe, and launched an attack into Murrays Corner around the outside after the US-American Holden driver had gotten sideways exiting The Chase.Aided by a better exit on the outside, the boosted little Alfa Romeo outaccelerated the big Holden.The Asahi Motorsport driver made another error at Griffins Bend, allowing Marc Orós to attack the Holden driver.The Spaniard cheekily completed the pass for 7th place around the outside at The Cutting.With Knechtel holding up the three cars behind him in the downhill section, the Mercedes driver on his tail found himself in a precarious position when the quartet rounded Forrest's Elbow.Adam Keefe attacked Marc Orós on Conrod Straight and got his nose ahead going into The Chase, where he struggled to maintain control of his Holden and forced the Mercedes driver to run wide.The Simruina driver ended up in the gravel trap and lost two positions, while FMG capitalized on the quarrel ahead by passing Adam Keefe's Holden around the outside in the braking zone!With Keefe unable to maintain the pace of FMG's Nissan in the following laps, Orós closed in on the Holden driver enough to catch him off-guard from more than a car length behind at Murrays Corner.Orós executed a textbook dive bomb and entered the main straight alongside the Holden.The Holden fans at Hell Corner could hardly believe their eyes when they saw the Mercedes driver briefly going through on the brakes after the Commodore had been unable to open up enough of a gap on the main straight. Adam Keefe's Iron Lion then brought him back ahead on the run up the Mountain Straight. In the pit lane, the retired Sierra of Florian Masse had since been joined by both Audis: another race to forget for the manufacturer from Ingolstadt.The Spaniard launched a daring attack exiting McPhillamy Park and went through on the outside at Skyline.Desperate to maximize the gap, Marc Orós pushed his 190E through The Dipper with two wheels off the ground. In the background, his team mate Ayrton Titos and the pre-crashed Alfa Romeo of Nat Stevenson complete this 4-way battle.The big Holden V8 of Adam Keefe powered back through on Conrod Straight.Nat Stevenson launched an attack against Ayrton Titos, but the Spaniard prevailed on the brakes at The Chase.In the meantime, Attila Diner silently fought his way back up to 12th place and proceeded to pull away rapidly from the Side Heart HIFI Sierra of Potatohedron from the United States.Adam Keefe made his Holden as wide as possible across the top of the mountain, compressing the battle for 7th place into a tightly-packed 4-car formation once again.This allowed Nat Stevenson to power past Ayrton Titos to grab 10th place, despite the Mercedes-Benz driver's valiant counterattack at The Chase.When Adam Keefe ran wide onto the curb exiting McPhillamy Park, Marc Orós launched yet another attack around the outside into Skyline.Orós captured 7th place while Keefe managed to keep his Holden out of the tyre barrier. In the background, the other Simruina Racing Team III car of Ayrton Titos missed the turn in point and takes the escape road.The US-American powered back through on Conrod Straight. In the background, Attila Diner starts to appear on the horizon, with the German rapidly catching up lap after lap.The Spaniard had none of that, and immediately sent his Mercedes-Benz down the inside of the Holden again at The Chase.Arriving at Murrays Corner, Orós defended 7th place against the Holden driver.The Simruina driver then made a mistake at Hell Corner and ran wide.That allowed both Adam Keefe and Nat Stevenson to power through on the climb up Mountain Straight.Stevenson even attempted an attack on the Holden driver, but Adam Keefe prevailed. Marc Orós made an attempt around the outside against Stevenson, but the Mercedes-Benz's acceleration out of Griffins Bend was no match for the turbocharged Alfa Romeo.Going into The Cutting, however, Marc Orós sent his 190E down the inside of the Englishman's Alfa Romeo, and the pair rounded the steep curve side by side. Meanwhile, Attila Diner has arrived on the rear bumper of Ayrton Titos, turning this fight for 7th place into a 5-way battle.Against all odds, Stevenson defended 8th place on the outside.Coming through The Dipper, the five of them were nose to tail.A mistake on the brakes saw Stevenson locking up his front right while defending the inside against Marc Orós, who exited Forrest's Elbow alongside Stevenson's Alfa Romeo.Here comes the Turbo Train: Nat Stevenson outaccelerates Marc Orós through the kink at the top of Conrod Straight while Attila Diner powers past Ayrton Titos.By the end of the straight, the Jolly Club driver had passed Orós as well.The Spaniard had none of that, and promptly recaptured the position from Diner while braking for The Chase.The Jolly Club driver then outaccelerated the Simruina 190E around the outside ... ... and set at trap at Murrays Corner.Orós fell for it, putting two wheels into the grass in the braking zone before skidding into the gravel trap before resuming the race in 12th place.This opened the door for Potatohedron's RS500 to power past the Spaniard on Mountain Straight.The next attack on 8th place was launched by Nat Stevenson at Murrays Corner, but he could not make it stick.Instead, he himself got under attack on the outside by the Jolly Club Alfa Romeo of Attila Diner.Stevenson attempted another move against Keefe at Hell Corner, but the Holden driver prevailed.Arriving at Griffins Bend, the two Alfa Romeos were still side by side and their duel boiled over.Attila Diner braked too late and bumped into the back of Adam Keefe's Holden. The two Alfa Romeos then locked horns and crashed straight into the tyre wall. While Diner got back on the road behind Ayrton Titos, Stevenson lost another two positions and found himself back in 13th position after this ordeal.Meanwhile, his team mate with the blue windscreen banner was busy with keeping the Suntory Nissan of FMG behind him, with the British driver waiting for a mistake by Valentin Knechtel to capitalize on in the battle for 6th place.Attila Diner's next opportunity to gain a position arose at the end of Conrod Straight, where he went into The Chase on the outside of Ayrton Titos's Mercedes-Benz 190E.Although the Simruina 190E driver tried to recapture 9th place on the brakes, the Jolly Club driver prevailed.Just two long straights later, the Mercedes-Benz driver had to defend his 10th place against the immensely powerful Ford Sierra RS500 of Potatohedron at Griffins Bend.The US-American Ford driver then got under attack by Titos's team mate Marc Orós, with the Alfa Romeo of Nat Stevenson following in his footsteps ...... before pouncing on the Spaniard to capture 12th place from him.Orós then misjudged the braking of Stevenson's Alfa Romeo and went off the track at The Chase.After a lengthy detour through the gravel trap that added plenty of dirt to his tyres ...... the drivers championship leader applied too much throttle and spun his 190E into the wall.The defending champion gladly accepted the gift and advanced to 13th position - it was only little more than giving a glass of ice water to someone in hell, though, because Jaroslav Cerny has been experiencing a very unlucky season.The fans cheered as Simruina's lead driver Marc Orós lit up the tires to make his car point into the right direction again. Having descended to 14th place from 6th on the grid, this race did not go according to plan at all for the Spaniard.Meanwhile, Valentin Knechtel repelled an attack by FMG at Griffins Bend and continued to hold 6th place.In the battle for 8th place, Attila Diner boldly stuck in his nose going into the Frog Hollow, and rounded Sulman Park side by side with Adam Keefe.Still side by side, the two of them went through McPhillamy Park.The Jolly Club driver completed the pass for 8th as the two of them went into Skyline.Meanwhile out in front, Kuba Palubicki continued to lead the way in his BMW M3 and maintained a stable lead over the Ford Sierra RS500 of HappyKojot.Third place was still held by Boby Vakuinof, but Adam Celárek in the Holden gradually began to chip away at the gap between them.Another long straight, another attack on a Mercedes-Benz: Potatohedron grabs 10th place from Ayrton Titos at the end of Conrod Straight ...... only for the Spaniard to strike back on the brakes at The Chase.The Ford powered back through to 10th place on Mountain Straight.Crucial moment in the battle for 8th place: Attila Diner manages to lap the Mercedes-Benz 190E of Richard Rossier before Griffins Bend, but Adam Keefe gets stuck behind the Swiss Buddy Racing driver.The battle for 10th was down to two cars immediately after that, because Nat Stevenson lost the rear and spun into the tyre wall. In the end, he was classified in 13th position.They finally managed to lap Richard Rossier at McPhillamy Park ...... where Ayrton Titos was able to carry more momentum through the exit and passed Potatohedron.The 550 hp Ford powered back through on Conrod Straight, and this time Potatohedron made it stick.
Dramatic Finale
Behind the wheel of Side Heart Pepsi's blue-tailed can, Jordi Sumoy accelerates out of The Cutting while attempting to defend 15th place against a rather pristine Holden driven by Max Solmyr.In the final ten minutes of the race, the Spaniard cracked under pressure and drifted wide at Griffins Bend.The Aggressive Snails driver from France made use of the opportunity and captured 15th place.Meanwhile, Ayrton Titos - still battling for 10th place with Potatohedron - was being caught from behind by Jaroslav Cerny in the #1 BMW of Asahi Motorsport.Two late newcomers for the 2025 season of the TTM kept Pitman busy in the battle for 24th position: the #43 BMW of Eetu Karjunen, and David Schubert in the #54 Mercedes of SG Stern.Karjunen and Pitman made contact upon arrival at The Chase, forcing the BMW driver to go through the gravel trap. He gained the position in the process, but waved Pitman back through on the main straight.By the time the combatants rounded Sulman Park on the next lap, the leader had appeared behind them.Karjunen and Schubert made contact after Karjunen hit the exit wall at Sulman Park, and Karjunen proceeded to run wide through McPhillamy Park, where Kuba Palubicki flashed his highbeams in a frantic attempt to get through without losing his small lead over HappyKojot's Ford.Schubert didn't dare to complete the pass while Karjunen was in the grass behind the curb, causing Palubicki to get stuck behind both of them.Palubicki squeezed himself past Schubert while coming down the Esses.The lapped Mercedes of Schubert ended up in the wall after he made contact with the driver side of Palubicki's BMW after leaving inadequate space for the leader, who managed to save the car but now had HappyKojot's Ford glued to his rear bumper.The consequences of that were predictable, and HappyKojot immediately powered through into the lead on Conrod Straight.In the battle for third place, Adam Celárek successfully bullied Boby Vakuinof into outbraking himself at The Chase, and took the last step on the podium out of the Bulgarian's hands.An enormous flash darts out of the exhaust of HappyKojot's Ford in the frantic battle for the lead, with Kuba Palubicki's BMW also applying opposite lock behind him while the pair accelerate out of The Cutting to lap Pitman.When pitman lifted the throttle heavily on the apex leading into Quarry, Palubicki had to dart to the left ...... and ended up in the wall. The battle for the win was over: two bad blue flag situations in less than a lap were all it took for Palubicki to go from maintaining a stable but small lead to ending up too far behind to strike back.Jaroslav Cerny attempted a first attack on Ayrton Titos for 11th place around the outside into Griffins Bend on the penultimate lap, but ran wide and took an entire lap to catch up again.After overcoming his botched start without getting caught up in any accidents, HappyKojot drove a smart race where he matched the fantastic pace of Kuba Palubicki just outside of striking distance, until the BMW got caught up in two unfortunate blue flag situations. With his second win of the season, HappyKojot put himself into a very good position for the finale on the streets of Adelaide.Kuba Palubicki was the tragic hero of the race. From Pole Position, the BMW driver led the race uncontested until five minutes before the end of the race, two blue flag situations made everything fall apart and relegated him to second place. Nevertheless, Palubicki holds a 7 point lead in the drivers championship ahead of the finale.Adam Celárek completed the podium and separated Boby Vakuinof from what could have been his first podium of the season by less than a handful of car lengths.Although NeckR888 crossed the line holding 5th place on the road as the best Nissan, the start pileup cost him dearly. Following a 30 second penalty, he ended up in 8th place behind Knechtel, FMG, and Diner. In addition to that, the Team Impul driver was ordered by officials to start the final race of the season from the pit lane behind the rest of the field.With an impressive late charge, Marc Orós recovered the time that he had lost when he spun out at The Chase, and the championship leader suddenly appeared on the rear bumper of Jaroslav Cerny again late on the final lap in the four-way battle for 10th place. Following a poor exit from Forrest's Elbow, Orós could only watch in horror as the reigning champion passed his team mate on Conrod Straight.Ayrton Titos did not accept defeat and launched a counterattack on the brakes against Jaroslav Cerny, who squeezed the Spaniard towards the grass and made contact with Titos, causing the 190E to touch the grass while braking.Predictably, Titos lost control and skidded into Cerny's BMW. While Marc Orós was able to pass both of them, Jaroslav Cerny crossed the line in 12th place but got demoted to 14th place following a protest that led to a 12 second penalty for this unsafe defensive maneuver.The drama still continued! In the battle for 17th place, DJMD19 in the green-mirrored Mercedes-Benz 190E of Simruina Racing Team II overtook the BMW of Samu0332 on the final run down Conrod Straight.After the Spaniard defended the inside on the brakes at The Chase ...... the Italian accelerated his purple-tailed Side Heart Pepsi can into a gap that did not exist ...... and spun his Spanish rival off the road.Although Samu0332 took the checkered flag in 17th place, that move did not go unpunished. Race Control slapped him with a 15 second time penalty that demoted him to 19th place. The beneficiary of this situation was Panagiotis Mazarakis, who passed DJMD19 while he recovered from this spin.
Official Top 5 Results
HappyKojot (Ford Sierra RS500) - 1:00:20.521 - best lap 2:13.242
Kuba Palubicki (BMW M3 Sport Evo) +2.949s - best lap 2:13.351
Adam Celárek (Holden Commodore) +15.528s - best lap 2:13.295
Boby Vakuinof (Alfa Romeo 75 S1) +16.297s - best lap 2:13.719
Valentin Knechtel (Alfa Romeo 75 S1) +39.999s - best lap 2:14.014
Championship After Round 5 of 6
Kuba Palubicki retakes the lead of the drivers championship but can't afford any missteps anymore after having missed Round 4 in the harbor of Wellington. If he can deliver a solid race in Adelaide, though, he is in a prime position to grab the drivers title that he had been denied so narrowly last season due to a brake pedal failure during qualifying for the final round. Behind him, however, it's wide open: HappyKojot and Marc Orós travel to the finale on equal points, while Valentin Knechtel is only four points adrift. Attila Diner and Adam Celárek are just four and five points behind him and still have realistic podium chances as well.
Drivers Championship, Top 10 after Round 5
Kuba Palubicki (139 points, 1 win)
HappyKojot (132 points, 2 wins)
Marc Orós (132 points, 1 win)
Valentin Knechtel (128 points, 1 win)
Attila Diner (124 points)
Adam Celárek (123 points)
Boby Vakuinof (115 points)
Ayrton Titos (113 points)
Jaroslav Cerny (112 points)
Adam Keefe (99 points)
The round at Mount Panorama Circuit turned out to be an utter disaster for two teams with title ambitions. Simruina Racing Team III had arrived at Mount Panorama leading the teams championship, and with Marc Orós spearheading the drivers championship. But with Orós scoring 16 points less than HappyKojot, and Side Heart Motorsports putting two cars on the podium, the tables have turned.
Jolly Club had arrived at Bathurst holding second place in the teams championship, but only 4th and 5th place in the drivers championship. Knechtel's own goal at turn 1 sabotaged the Alfa Romeo duo's last hopes in the drivers championship and put Side Heart Motorsport into a very comfortable position for the teams title ahead of the finale on the streets of Adelaide.
Teams Championship, Top 3 after Round 5
Side Heart Motorsports (255 points)
Jolly Club (252 points)
Simruina Racing Team III (245 points)
BMW recaptured the lead in the manufacturers championship and holds a narrow margin over Alfa Romeo ahead of the finale. Mercedes-Benz arrived at Mount Panorama leading the constructors championship and departs in 4th place, with HappyKojot spearheading a late charge by Ford.
Next up: the grand finale on the streets of Adelaide. Who will stay level-headed enough to make it through on top? If Bathurst was any indication, it's near-impossible to predict. While Side Heart Motorsports is in a good position, their bad race at Wellington means no second chances are left for them, and the same must be said about the new leader in the drivers championship as he misssed it.
