Tasmania S5000: Fife cruises to win in Race 2, Mawson retires

Starting from pole position, Fife was unable to defend his lead from fellow front row starter Blake Purdie - and even briefly fell behind Cooper Webster on the run down to Turn 1.

However, the two-time Australian karting champion got a great drive exiting Turn 3 and was able to repass his 88Racing teammate Purdie just as the first safety car of the race was deployed.

The caution period was caused by BRM’s leading two drivers coming together at Turn 1, with Slade going up the inside of Mawson and pitching him off the track and over the gravel trap.

The marshals required just over four laps to retrieve Mawson’s stranded BRM before the action could resume, with Fife timing his restart perfectly to stay in the lead.

The green flag running lasted another four laps before the safety car was out again on lap 9, this time for a collision between Purdie and Webster at the hairpin - with a tap from the Versa Motorsport driver enough to end Purdie’s race.

Fife was again brilliant on the restart, pulling a gap of nearly two seconds over the chasing pack now led by Tim Macrow.

Macrow managed to bring down Fife’s advantage to under a second in the time-limited race, but ultimately that wasn’t enough to deny the 21-year-old a maiden victory in S5000 series.

James Golding completed the podium positions in the lead GRM entry behind Macrow, having carefully crafted his way up the pack as others fell by the wayside.

Supercars stalwart Slade was running last after his opening lap incident with Mawson, but ended up a strong fourth, just ahead of Kaleb Ngatoa. 

Webster was last of the classified finishers in sixth after being hit with a drive-through penalty for contact with Purdie.

Adam Garwood joined Mawson and Purdie in the list of retirees, the GRM driver coming to a halt just after the second safety car period ended on lap 13.