Jones claims Melbourne in milestone weekend
IN A MILESTONE weekend, two-time Porsche Equity-One Carrera Cup Australia Champion Harri Jones has claimed the opening round of his 2026 title campaign thanks to a stunning victory in the final race at Albert Park.
Matt Belford claimed a stunning victory in the Tech Specialist Pro-Am class thanks to a home-town clean sweep aboard his ID Land entry to open his 2026 account in style.
In another intense battle of the Carrera Cup Champions, Jones spent much of the Saturday night twilight in Melbourne fending off his longstanding rival Dylan O’Keeffe in the final race of the weekend, before then having to do the same thanks to pressure from Marcus Amand at the end.
Amand had run third early before one of his textbook aggressive passes under brakes at turn 11 to pass O’Keeffe for second.
He then hassled Jones to the line, though the two-time champ was good enough to fend off the advances of the TekworkX driver.
The result was a third winner from three races this weekend and a 10th career round win for Jones – coming in a weekend where he started his 100th race in the championship as well.
Defending champion O’Keeffe missed the round victory by just a handful of points while Amand was third for the round.
Clay Osborne continued his strong weekend with fourth in the final race while Aaron Love rounded out the top five.
The Race 3 Top 10 was completed by Glen Wood and Angelo Mouzouris, while Max Geoghegan’s stunning debut weekend in the Porsche ended up with him 8th in race three.
Fellow rookie Jake Santalucia was ninth overall while Lockie Bloxsom rounded out the top-10 in race three.
In Pro-Am, Belford was again unchallenged for much of the race on his pathway to perhaps the most dominant weekend of his Carrera Cup career.
He finished 15th outright in the 30-car field and three seconds in front of runner-up, Dean Cook. Cook was also second for the round overall, while Matt Slavin claimed a Grand Prix podium with third overall for the weekend.
Jacque Jarjo was fourth for the round but ended his Grand Prix weekend with third in the final race.
With the opening round complete, Jones leads O’Keeffe and Amand in the championship with the top three split by just four points, Osborne and Wood rounding out the top five. Belford leads the Tech Specialist Pro-Am class with a handy lead over Cook and Slavin – while defending champion Rodney Jane is only eighth following his race one non-finish.
After a hugely competitive opener to the seven-round championship, the Porsche Equity-One Carrera Cup Australia championship returns for the second round of the season at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway in June this year.
The next outing for Porsche Motorsport in Australia will be the opening round of the 2026 Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Series at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit Shannons SpeedSeries round in April.