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Twigg & D’Alberto Win At Highlands While Hackett/Storey Take The Title

AMG GT3s take race win, and the title

It was a thrilling end to the CAMS Australian GT Endurance Championship with Tony D’Alberto and Max Twigg taking the win at the Highlands Park 500.

While D’Alberto and Twigg’s Mercedes AMG GT3 won the battle (above), but it was the Mercedes of Peter Hackett and Dom Storey that won the war.

After their win last time out, they were up against Liam Talbot and John Martin’s Porsche GT3 and the Audi of Jaxon Evans and Tim Miles.

Talbot and Martin’s quest ended after Talbot had a clash with Dylan O’Keeffe’s BMW on the opening lap. While they tried to continue, the Porsche would eventually have to give up on lap 24.

The BMW would eventually retire on lap 93.

It wasn’t a good day for the big names with Supercars star, Shane van Gisbergan racing with Mike Widdett. While they led early on, they retired on lap 24 after contact with Matt Halliday on the final corner of the circuit.

Alvaro Parente, racing with Fraser Ross would retire on lap 77 with clutch issues.

The real fight was between the remaining title contenders with Storey and Evans fighting wheel to wheel.

Evans had held the advantage coming into the race and the pressure was on keep the Mercedes in sight.

But it all came unstuck on lap 97. With 24 laps to go, Evans hit the wall at the Busstop and the resulting damage eliminated the Audi.

This left Storey and Hackett to circulate around. While not setting the track on fire, they ran the race the needed.

Finishing sixth and two laps down, they did enough to take the Championship by 62 points.

For both, it was their first title success but for Hackett it was sweet reward after losing the Championship to Klark Quinn on the final round 2012.

But the race was Twigg and D’Alberto’s. They fought off a good challenge from the McLaren of Tony Quinn and Andrew Waite who took second.

Adrian Deitz and Cameron McConville took third, the first Australian GT podium for Lamborghini Huracan.

Hackett and Storey (above) will now receive their Championship trophies in a presentation to be held in Melbourne in late November.