All on the line as Porsche titles up for grabs at Adelaide Grand Final

THERE will be everything to play for when the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia races to its conclusion at the Adelaide Grand Final this weekend in South Australia.

The Equity-One Pro, Acronis Pro-Am and even the Teams Championship will all be up for grabs this weekend as a power-packed 24-strong grid descends on the famous Adelaide Parklands Circuit for the 17th time in championship history.

Dylan O’Keeffe and Harri Jones will battle for the Pro class while in Pro-Am it will be Rodney Jane and Matt Belford fighting for the top spot – with all results on the table.

Before claiming their respective titles, the winners will need to work their way through a remarkably deep Adelaide field that includes several cameo performers looking to make their mark.

As well as current Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland champion and Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup runner-up Robert de Haan, who will race with EMA Motorsport, current Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge champion Jake Santalucia will make his Carrera Cup Australia debut this weekend driving a fourth car from Sonic Motor Racing.

Wall Racing will field Carrera Cup Asia driver Li Xuanyu to add further international flair.

Meanwhile, making a cameo comeback will be Aaron Love – who steps into the car Caleb Sumich has raced this year at McElrea Racing. With Sumich overseas and competing in Carrera Cup Middle East, Love’s fill-in role adds even more spice with the young West Aussie having made his mark as one of the quickest ever in the category.

Love finished runner-up to eventual champion Harri Jones in the 2022 championship despite missing a round due to international racing commitments. He won 11 times in his Carrera Cup career, his return adding yet another wildcard element into the mix.

The title battles will be the overarching focus of the weekend with both Pro and Pro-Am delicately poised heading into the final three races of the season.

O’Keeffe (GWR / RAM Motorsport) leads Harri Jones (Jones Motorsport) by just 24 points with 181 up for grabs in Adelaide meaning any result is still possible.

Jones has claimed 9 race wins to O’Keeffe’s three this year however the latter has built his lead on relentless consistency: He’s finished inside the top three in 13 of the 20 races to have counted so far. Regardless of the winner, the 2025 title will go to a team that has yet to claim the outright championship.

Meanwhile, the fight for third will also go down to the wire with Bayley Hall (EMA Motorsport) trailing third-placed David Russell (TekworkX) by just nine points.

In the Acronis Pro-Am ranks Rodney Jane (Sonic) and Matt Belford (GWR) will fight for a title even closer than the Equity-One Pro fight with Jane – who has led all season – leading Belford, who has claimed the two most recent rounds – by just seven points. However, each Pro-Am contender will only count seven of their best eight rounds meaning even a bad weekend in Adelaide could still deliver title success for either driver.

Jane is already a two-time Pro-Am champion, taking the title in 2006 and 2007, while Belford only made his debut in the category in 2022.

Adelaide has been a staple of the annual Carrera Cup season for all bar four of the years the category has raced in Australia.

Dale Wood has claimed the two most recent rounds in Adelaide and will look to join Craig Baird as the only driver to win three consecutive rounds at the circuit.

Bayley Hall (1m20.1441s) holds the Adelaide race lap record while Dale Wood’s 2024 pole lap of 1m19.8326s stands as the qualifying lap record.

Following two practice sessions on Thursday, qualifying will be held early on Friday morning before the first race on Friday afternoon – that race also to decide the Pro and Pro-Am Endurance Cup title battles for the season.

Further sprint races on Saturday and Sunday will then decide the championship and the Adelaide round win.

Practice 2, qualifying and all three races will be shown live on Fox Sports, Kayo Sports and Sky NZ this weekend while Races 2 and 3 will also be shown live on the Seven Network.