Tasmania S5000: Macrow victorious in Race 3, trouble for Golding

As had been the case in the previous two races this weekend, the outside spot on the front row provided the best launch, allowing Macrow to get the jump on polesitter James Golding into Turn 1.

Golding would then lock up his tyres going into the hairpin, just avoiding the gravel trap at the exit of the turn to remain in the race.

With the GRM driver dropping to dead last with a rare error, Cooper Webster became Macrow’s leading challenger in second, having got past debutant Tim Slade at the start.

Webster briefly closed the gap to Macrow to six tenths of a second, but the 37-year-old was able to respond to the Versa Motorsport driver’s pace to bring his advantage back up to a second.

Macrow eventually took the chequered flag by just under eight tenths from Webster, claiming his third victory in the V8-powered S5000 series.

Race 2 winner Josh Fife had a relatively uneventful outing  from fifth on the grid, bagging a strong haul of points for taking the final spot on the podium.

Joey Mawson finished a strong fourth after the reigning champion took to the track just five seconds before the pitlane was closed, with the BRM team putting in a mighty effort to repair his car after a collision in Race 2 earlier on Sunday.

Golding mounted a stunning recovery drive after falling six seconds behind the pack with a second error at the hairpin on lap 2, passing a number of drivers at the end of the race to salvage fifth.

Blake Purdie and Kaleb Ngatoa were the last two drivers to finish the race in sixth and seventh respectively after Slade retired with a technical issue and Adam Garwood beached his car in gravel shortly after being passed by teammate Golding.