Jason Miller has extended his lead in the 2019 CUE Production Sports Car endurance series, winning Class A and finishing second outright in the opening one-hour race at Winton today.
Miller qualified the Stokes Racing Porsche 911 GT3 third, and ran third in the early laps, but was able to move up to second place during a shower of rain. He even took the outright lead before pitting for his compulsory stop on lap 27, after which he emerged in second place.
“The car was working well in qualifying, but I didn’t quite put all my best sectors together,” Miller said.
“In the race, I was running third behind Sergio Pires in the newer 991-model Porsche, and he was difficult to pass because his car was stronger out of the slow corners compared to mine.
“When the rain started falling, it worked really well because it negated his advantage, and I was able to overtake him.
“I even led outright at one stage, but it was always going to be difficult to race competitively against the KFC Audi R8, which was a much faster GT3-spec car. Once the pit stop cycle was complete, I was comfortably in second outright, and importantly I was able to score the Class A win, which is exactly what I needed for the championship.”
With fine weather predicted for tomorrow’s second one-hour race, Miller said qualifying will be especially important.
“It looks like it will be a dry race tomorrow, so I can’t rely on rain to help create overtaking opportunities,” Miller said.
“I need to nail qualifying, to be in the best-possible position for another class win.”