25^th March, 2002
Commodore Cup
Oran Park - Round One

  Three share opening round honours

  The Power Tour's Commodore Cup series is likely to be one of the closest fought one-make series ever, following the first round at Oran Park on the weekend where Geoff Emery, Christian D'Agostin and Marcus Zukanovic each won a heat.

Entry numbers were strong at the NSW circuit for what predominantly has a Victoria-strong base and qualifying was very close with three tenths of a second covering the top nine.

Race One
D'Agostin won the first event, showing the way to Emery while Zukanovic maintained third for the duration. In their wake Greg Waters and Andrew McInnes circulated in close company until Neville Haley split them in the later stages of the 17-lap event.

Race Two
It was Emery who won the second race, claiming the lead from the outset and holding off a probing D'Agostin all the way to the finish.

Waters held third initially and while he could not hold out Zukanovic, he did keep Haley at bay for fourth in the end. The pair were clear of Brett Holdsworth who bettered McInnes and Craig Domaschenz.

Race Three
The start of the third race almost brought the field undone, when D'Agostin moved across on Emery in a bid to protect his better getaway.

However neither was prepared to give a quarter and the resultant clash sent D'Agostin spinning across the infield and delayed Emery somewhat.

Zukanovic assumed the lead with Domaschenz second and ahead of D'Agostin who had cut out a lot of track to rejoin. They were followed by Holdsworth, Emery and Haley, a survivor of a clash with another into the first corner that had seen his Commodore airborne.

Seemingly comfortable with the lead Zukanovic was eventually run down and passed by Domaschenz but almost as soon as he was in front, the latter was pit bound and out of the race, leaving Zukanovic to take race honours.

For many laps the scrap for second raged with Emery getting to the line just ahead of Haley and Holdsworth with McInnes winning out over Lee Holdsworth, Peter Castledine and Allan Walls.