Finnish Carrera Cup ace Marcus Amand has earned his first victory on Australian soil, in just his sixth start with TekworkX Motorsport, at The Bend Motorsport Park.

Racing for TekworkX in Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia, Amand joined the team last round as a debutant to the category but with a vault of experience as the current championship leader in Carrera Cup France.

After Friday’s pair of practice sessions it was stablemate David Russell who set the pace for the field, setting the team up well for Qualifying.

Amand found his feet quickly around the Tailem Bend circuit in qualifying, emerging as the fastest driver for much of the session before being pipped late in the running, by 3 hundredth of a second. His consistency helped to deliver pole position for Race 2, the grid set based off second fastest laps.

In Race 1, TekworkX’s trio all moved forward with Amand claiming a runner-up finish with Russell in sixth and Tom McLennan climbing to 16th. Race 2 was marred by confusion, an errant start light system leaving Amand stranded on the grid and down in 15th on the opening lap. The 18-year-old again displayed his remarkable ability to find overtakes where others couldn’t, climbing up 13 places and recovering to second.

The final race of the weekend is where the stars finally aligned for Amand, after three consecutive runner-up results, launching brilliantly off the line and comfortably controlling the race to take his maiden win in Carrera Cup Australia. Russell enjoyed his best run of the weekend as well, coming home in fourth place and increasing his hold over fourth in the championship. McLennan finished the weekend on the front foot, after starting from 18^th and cutting his way through to finish in 13^th.

Round six of Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia takes place as part of the Repco Bathurst 1000 from October 9-12 at Mount Panorama.

Quotes:
Marcus Amand
“I’m very happy, it was very hard as every session the wind changes and especially on Friday, but the team worked very hard during the night to change the car and after Friday the weekend was pretty good.

“Just a bit disappointed about Race 2 because I think I had the pace to win but I couldn’t do anything, but very nice to have my first win and second position (overall) is great.

“I was here last week testing, so I could see the track, but even though I drove then the track was always changing so it was very hard and even for other drivers. It was fun to work with the guys during the week, just cleaning tyres, but it was pretty cool.”