Blake Purdie has continued his impressive introduction into sports car racing with another round win in the OTR South Australian Sports Car Invitational Series at The Bend Motorsport Park.
Twenty-two drivers from South Australia and New South Wales joined the Series for its second round after a successful debut in September, and for the second time in a row the teenager ended up accumulating the most points across the three races to secure the round win.
After starting the weekend with a P6 in qualifying, Purdie continued where he left off from the first round and showed maturity in all three races, eventually ending the weekend with his first two wins of the season and a third place.
While he was solid throughout the whole meeting, his biggest threats came from series debutants Chris Perini, Peter Paddon and Michael Naguib, 2017 Australian Prototype Series winner Mark Laucke and the dual entry of Garth Walden and Michael Almond.
Purdie’s first race win was the most impressive of the lot as the 16-year-old climbed his way up the field from sixth into top spot where he remained for the final few laps of the race, finishing ahead of fast charging Naguib and Perini.
Behind the wheel of the Jam Motorsport prepared Wolf GB08 CN, Purdie then continued his fine form and led the field for every single lap in the second race as Naguib and Perini dropped slightly down the field and were replaced by Laucke and Walden/Almond on the podium.
Unfortunately, Purdie was unable to claim that clean sweep of victories after he lost his lead on the second lap of the final race and found himself as low as 10th following the required pit stop period, but still showed his class by navigating his way up the order to finish in third place behind Paddon and Yasser Shahin.
It proved to be a remarkable performance from Shahin, as the Radical driver avoided some first lap drama between Marty Ewer and Kostinken Pohorukov to moved up to fifth from 12th by lap two, before grabbing the lead just seven laps later and building his gap to more than one minute over the second placed Paddon
Despite his dominant victory in the final race of the weekend, Shahin ended the day in seventh place after two disappointing previous results where he finished outside the top 10.
Taking out second place behind Purdie in the round’s outright standings was Perini after the Radical driver enjoyed a highly consistent weekend with two top five finishes and a sixth place.
Walden and Almond also enjoyed similar results to Perini but due to the points system, ended the weekend in third place alongside Laucke who finished with a podium and two top 10s.
Competitors now have a longer break ahead of the OTR South Australian Sports Car Invitational Series’ final round, which takes place at The Bend Motorsport Park on 12 December.