RACE RAP: Monday, January 27
Porsche won the Daytona 24 but it was the 'wrong' car on top for Aussies, as Matt Campbell finished third in the second of the German brand's 963 prototypes after a torrid final stint.
It was Porsche's 20th outright win at the Rolex 24, a result hailed by team owner Roger Penske as “Quite something there at the end!”
The other big Aussie interest in the sports car season opener was the Chevrolet Corvette crewed by Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen. The former Supercars champions were 25th overall and ninth in the GTD Pro category.
The all-day grind at Daytona produced another race of incidents, including contact between the leaders, and typical final sprint to the flag.
The winning Porsche 963 was crewed by Felipe Nasr, Laurens Vanthor and Nick Tandy, while second was claimed by Acura with a driving line-up of Felix Rosenqvist, Scott Dixon, Colin Braun and Tom Blomqvist.
The Ford Mustang GT3 scored its first major victory with a win in the GTD PRO class, with the driving line-up led by regular Bathurst visitor Christopher Mies.
Harris takes Top Fuel: Two feisty nights of Top Fuel action at Willowbank Raceway produced an in-house shootout between Damien Harris and Wayne Newby of Rapisarda Autosport.
Defending NDRC Damien Harris got the chocolates with a 3.806 pass at 519.26 km/h pass in the A Final, trumping Wayne Newby's 3.784/522.37 effort.
Phil Read claimed the B Final ahead of Peter Xiberras, after the Supercars team owner had battled a red light and electrical troubles earlier in the meeting.
In XPRO Nitro Funny Car, there was another team-mate shoot-out as Morice McMillin finished on top of Josh Leahy for the Aeroflow-Rocket Industries squad with a winning effort of 4.040 seconds at 448.98km/h.
More Bull for SvG: A five-race NASCAR deal will see Shane van Gisbergen bringing familiar colours to his Chevrolet Camaro with Trackhouse Racing.
The new deal is an extension of SvG's existing deal as a Red Bull athlete and will include the Cup series debut of his 18-year-old team mate, Connor Zilisch.
The Trackhouse deal marks the return of Red Bull to NASCAR, although SvG has been on the athlete's roster since Supercars in 2016.
Richie slots in: Richie Stanaway has had his Chevrolet Camaro seat fitting during his first visit to PremiAir Racing on the Gold Coast.
Ironically, he arrived for the milestone event with the seat insert from his single season with Grove Racing in a Ford Mustang.
Stanaway has targeted a breakthrough year with PremiAir after single seasons in the past with Tickford, Garry Rogers Motorsport and Grove, intending to build a solid future with the new team.
Brown gets the key: Proud Toowoomba boy Will Brown has been rewarded for his loyalty with the key to the city.
Brown joins Will Power with the honour, as well as adventurer Alyssa Azar, who became the youngest Australian to climb Mount Everest.
The Supercars champion has been flat-out during the off-season, racing single-seaters in New Zealand and even flying to Tamworth to collect a custom hat from his sponsor, S.Kidman.
More Wood for Grove Racing: Dale Wood will be back at Bathurst in October to parner rookie Kai Allen in The Big One.
The Carrera Cup front-runner will return to Grove Racing, where veteran Garth Tander will again slide in alongside Matt Payne.
Wood ensured the second of the Mustangs in the Grove team ran solidly in the Top 10 through last year's enduro events at Sandown and Bathurst, when he was paired with Richie Stanaway.