Penalty Hinders Hedge’s Gold Coast Weekend

Callum Hedge returned to Porsche Carrera Cup Australia racing over the weekend, at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, around the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit.

The kiwis early pace was evident, finished 2nd and 1st in the two practice sessions. He continued the pace, by taking his 4th pole position, and securing the overall pole position award for the season.

With one round remaining, Hedge entered the weekend with a 6-point lead in the championship, having missed the previous round at Mount Panorama, Bathurst.

Starting from pole position for the opening 16-lap race, Hedge made a great start, and would lead lights to flag, to claim his 4th race win of the season.

Callum Hedge after his Race 1 win.

Heading into Race 2, Callum was confident with his car and his ability to navigate through the streets of Surfers, but a slower start to race two had Callum’s competitors hot on his tail, with the #17 dropping to 2nd on the opening lap. A quick pass in the early laps moved Hedge back to the lead, where he remained throughout a multiple safety car restarts.

However, it would be on the final restart where the second placed driver made contact with Callum coming into the first corner chicane, forcing Callum to cut the chicane to avoid a crash. Based on precedent throughout the weekend, Callum was handled a five second penalty, dropping the #17 from the race win, down to 11th position. The race would end under red flag after a multi-car crash.

Starting from 8th in Race 3, Hedge managed to make some smooth passes to move forward and cross the line in 6th. This put Callum 4th overall for the round, but unfortunately dropped him 15 points away from the championship lead.

One round remains for the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia championship, which will be held at the Adelaide Street Circuit on 23rd-26th Novemeber.

But before then, Callum will head back to America for the final round of the Formula Regional Americas championship at Circuit of the Americas, before jet-setting to Europe for the Porsche Global Shootout.

QUOTES

Callum Hedge, #17 Team Porsche New Zealand Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche 991-2 Cup Car

“Another one of those weekends where we started off well, and then got a penalty half way through the weekend. Started off with the pole [position] and a race win, then won race one, but got a penalty for cutting the first chicane, which in my opinion, I strongly disagree with.”

“I feel like that was not a fair or reasonable call so really disappointed with the decision that was made there. Then in the last race, we were the fastest car on the track by quite a fair amount, drove flat out the whole race, made a few moves but just didn’t have enough to move much further forward.”

“It’s a shame - we lost the championship lead because of that penalty, but I’m looking forward to Adelaide, and we’ll see if we can bring it home.”