Two former Gold Star champions went wheel-to-wheel in a thrilling return for single-seater cars to the Clipsal 500 Adelaide – and it was a lap record breaking performance to boot.
Piccola Scuderia Corse's Neil McFadyen held off Ben Clucas to win the opening shortened nine-lap race whilst Kiwi Earl Bamber finished third but demolished the five-year old outright lap record in the process.
Whilst McFadyen and Clucas were dicing for the race lead Bamber set the new benchmark on the fifth lap, leaving the new benchmark at 1m 18.6011s. Four drivers, including the first and second placed finishers, lapped well underneath the existing mark.
From pole, McFadyen made the best start and led the field to turn one, whilst Clucas fired forward from the second row of the grid and was able to pass both teammates Bamber and Nathan Caratti on the run to the infamous first chicane. Bamber slipped to fourth, but was quickly able to disperse Caratti and lift himself onto the podium – a position he would hold for the remainder of the race.
The two leaders quickly drove away from the field at lap-record pace whilst Bamber held off his team-mate and Leanne Tander in a close battle for third. A Safety Car was called to recover a stranded car on lap six, bunching up the field for a tense restart following conformation that only two laps would remain in the race.
McFadyen continued to lead on the restart however an aggressive Bamber found the notorious turn one chicane kerb as the field filed through – launching his car several feet into the air in dramatic fashion – though he was able to hold off those behind him to get to the finish in one piece.
![Neil McFadyen - Piccola Scuderia Corse [Pic credit: Klynsmith/Race Torque]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/409068.jpg)
