Luke Youlden has again been forced into recovery mode in the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Series, after a race one incident relegated the Tekworkx driver to the rear of the field.
Youlden encountered gearbox issues in Qualifying which limited him to 15th on the grid but made rapid progress in the opening laps of race one and rose up seven spots within two laps. Unfortunately, an incident shortly thereafter dropped Youlden out of the race and left him to start 21st in race two.
“Yeah, that was really disappointing to get caught up in another incident – we’ve been really unlucky this year and we were hoping it would turn around this weekend,” said Youlden.
“However, we evidently had some very good pace in that race though given how quickly we rose up the order, which gave us some confidence for the last two races.”
Across the two races on Sunday, Youlden passed 13 cars to charge his way inside the top 10. Race two of the weekend was the Enduro Cup race, in which Youlden finished 10th before going on to finish eighth in race three.
“We’re quite satisfied with our performances on Sunday, we were able to come through in race two quite smoothly. It was a bit tougher to make up positions in race three with the cars being so evenly-matched, but overall Sunday was a good day after the disappointment of Saturday,” he said.
“Our race pace is great but we need to put together our Fridays and Saturdays so we can get track position and avoid getting caught up in the mid-pack drama. That will be our focus moving forward.”
Youlden and Tekworkx Motorsport will return for round four of the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Series at Sydney Motorsport from August 20-22.
Round Results Summary
Qualifying: 15th
Race 1: DNF
Race 2: 10th
Race 3: 8th
Carrera Cup Top 10 Points
1. Cameron Hill – 510
2. Cooper Murray – 350
3. Harri Jones – 326
4. David Wall – 318
5. Aaron Love – 254
6. Matthew Payne – 250
7. Christian Pancione – 216
8. Michael Almond – 216
9. Craig Lowndes – 204
10. Luke Youlden – 195