Cameron Hill’s incredible winning-streak in the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup has come to an end as Cooper Murray claimed his first round win of the season during the NTI Townsville Supersprint.
Very little separated the duo throughout the weekend and Hill, who leads the series, was on track to continue his unbeaten run after winning the first race of the weekend, while Murray finished fourth behind David Wall and David Russell.
In the Enduro Cup Race, Murray beat Hill to the chequered flag to notch up his first win of the season and the third in his Carrera Cup career, putting an end to Hill’s streak in the process, which had run from the first race of the year.
The weekend then ended in dramatic circumstances as junior Matthew Payne won his first race of the season with a three-second win over Murray, while Love held off Hill to grab just his second podium of the year.
With Murray and Hill each grabbing a race win, runner-up and fourth place, the final result came down to countback, eventually going in the favour of Murray.
Following his first-round win since last year's Adelaide 500, Murray was thrilled with his weekend’s performance, which saw him move to second on the outright standings and first in the Junior Cup ahead of teammate Harri Jones.
“I love it here (Townsville), been here twice and I’ve won the round twice, it’s an amazing track and it was good that we could come back here this year,” Murray said.
“I know I had to beat Cam in the last race to take the round win, but it's great reward for the team and I’m just glad that we’re back on top.”
It was just as tight in the Morris Finance Pro-Am class with Stephen Grove edging out Geoff Emery by just one point.
Grove got the better start of the two, winning the first race ahead of Sam Shahin and Emery before the latter took out the next two races over Grove who finished second in each.
However when it came to the points, Grove’s pole position point proved to be the difference, securing round honours over the class leader by the smallest of margins.
“It was a tough race (race three), but Geoff is a great guy to race, he’s got good vision and it’s great to go against him,” Grove said.
“Our weekend was pretty good, I was disappointed I couldn’t push much more in the last race, but to finish in P1 overall is a good result. The good thing is I don’t get back into the (Porsche 911) GT3 R until September so I can just focus on driving this car, so I’m looking forward to the next round.”
The Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup’s fourth round of the season takes place next month at the Sydney Super Night Race.