Driving their Lotus, Denyer and D’Alberto stormed to the lead, at the Sydney Motorsport Park on Sunday, by half-race in the four-hour race.

They then survived a mechanical issue, two ill-timed safety cars and a late driver change to still hold on for victory.

It was their second consecutive round victory, third-straight race win and saw the duo recover from a horrible opening round of the championship at Sandown – where they failed to score any points – to lead the standings heading into the Phillip Island finale.

“We wouldn’t have thought that we would be sitting in this position [after Sandown],” Denyer said.

“We are still coming to grips with the little Lotus and it has its vulnerabilities and we are still learning to tune it.”

Strategy played a key aspect to the win, according to D’Alberto.

“It certainly wasn’t [an easy race] as we weren’t fast enough so we had to play a bit of strategy and take a bit of risk,” he said.

“We only changed a right rear [tyre] during the race so we took a bit of a risk there. Grant did a great stint in the middle and we were lucky enough to get a big enough gap that at the end we weren’t under too much pressure.”

Denyer and D’Alberto now lead the championship by 25 points, ahead of Grant and Iain Sherrin. 

Late heartbreak decided Class C, when the leading Blake and Kyle Aubin, driving their Renault Megane RS265, expired with 20 minutes remaining in the race.

The Bathurst-based brothers had led convincingly before a mechanical issue ended their day.

Their withdrawal initially handed the win to the Naylor brothers before a post-race penalty saw Calum Jones and Colin Osborne claim the class victory in their Osborne Motorsport Renault Megane.  

The Aubin brothers expressed their grief on their Facebook page – Aubin Brothers Racing.

“After a day of reflection it has sunk in that 2018 probably won’t be our championship year,” the post read.

“We put absolutely everything we could into this season but some things aren’t meant to be, which is a very tough pill to swallow.

“A massive thanks again to our amazing sponsors and also to our little crew who I feel have some of the best skills in pit line, which is proof to our pit stop time.

“Who knows where next year will take us, one thing we know for sure is that Aubin Brothers Racing don’t do anything half measured and winning is the only goal.” 

Australian Production Car Series’ final round is on November 2 to 4, at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.