The Australian GT Championship headed to Phillip Island for a double header weekend. It featured round four of the Sprint Series and the inaugural round of the Endurance Series.
The Endurance Series would feature a 101 lap race, running for a touch over 2.5 hours. The Sprint Series would see two, one hour races.
Debuting in the series this weekend was DTM’s Bruno Spengler who joined Morgan Haber in the new MARC BMW M6 GT3. Yasser Shahin would also be making his debut in a Lambhorghin Gallardo.
There was a heart-warming moment too as Keith Kassulke made his competitive return in a MARC Focus V8 after suffering severe burns at a State meeting in 2015.
Spain’s Miguel Molina would also take a seat with Jamec Pem, alongside Tony Bates who was replacing the injured Geoff Emery in the same car.
Twenty-nine cars would like up for the Sprint Series and there were 27 starters for the Endurance Championship.
While this was, rightfully, a banner weekend for the Australian GT Championship, they haven’t left the race weekend without a headache.
Control tyre supplier, Pirelli experienced a large number of tyre blowouts over the weekend with more than 30 punctures and failures occurring over the weekend.
The most alarming of which happened to Marco Bonanomi’s Audi R8 GT3 who suffered an explosion through a 260km/hr, sixth gear corner.
While there were many failures early in the weekend, action was not taken to limit the impact on tyres.
It has been confirmed to Dailysportscar that the tyres used over the weekend are the same compound and construction has used around the world and as used in the past at Phillip Island.
Undoubtedly the new cars are much harder on tyres with increased aerodynamic grip and mechanical grip. Added to the situation is Phillip Island’s long sweeping fast corners, putting major strain on the tyres.
Due to the unusually high amount of failures, Pirelli has launched an investigation which includes sending failed tyres to Italy for analysis.
The Australian GT Championship and Pirelli will await the results of the analysis and investigation prior to making any changes to what they do in this Championship.
Endurance Race
The first ever CAMS Australian Endurance Championship was a truly thrilling affair with the top two separated by just three tenths of a second after 158 minutes of racing.
A hard-charging Shane van Gisbergen took second place from the Mercedes AMG GT3 of Dom Storey on lap 95 and had to chase down a five second lead before the checkered flag waved in lap 101.
Van Gisbergen would reel off string of laps in the 1:28.0 bracket to close the gap. The leader, Nathan Morcom, also in a McLaren, would know he was coming but as we have seen in the past, van Gisbergen will pass at any opportunity, finding grip where others do not.
The situation was tense with Morcom only being able achieve the 1:30s but he was able to hold on.
Morcom was able to take the lead after a considered drive from him and teammate Grant Denyer. Qualifying 10th Morcom was able to negotiate his way through the field and use a shorter pitstop time to put Denyer into the lead. The lead grew to 15 seconds by the time the second pitstop round came and up to 30 seconds after the second stop.
Van Gisbergen sharing with Klark Quinn were involved in fights throughout the field, a particularly fierce one with the Spengler BMW. Longer pit stop times would hamper their progress but set up the thrilling final laps.
The Storey/Peter Hackett Mercedes would hold onto third with Tony Quinn and Daniel Gaunt’s Aston Martin losing out on the fuel strategy. The Quinn/Gaunt duo had been lying in second with 10 laps to go but had to duck in for fuel, dropping them to fifth.
After their battles through the race Spengler/Haber took 13th in their BMW. Over 23 cars reached the finish line.
Sprint race 1
Round four of the Sprint Championship got underway with Garth Tander and Steve McLaughlan claiming pole in the Jamec Pem Audi R8 Ultra.
Their race would be ruined on lap 10 with a tyre failure while holding two second lead. They would ultimately finish 16th.
It was no better for teammates Miguel Molina and Tony Bates who would experience a puncture and penalty for unsafe release, dropping them to 28th.
It was however, a drive from the rear of the grid that would take the headlines.
Nathan Morcom’s Tekno McLaren 650S GT3 was excluded from qualifying for being underweight and was forced to start 27th,
He climbed to tenth by the time the pitstop window opened and a safety car period packed the field. The caution was due to Peter Rullo’s standard Lamborghini.
He would fight to the lead, passing debutant Yasser Shahin on the second-last lap after an error from the South Australian driver.
However, Shahin’s drive also needs to be honoured. In only his fourth time in the car, and his first race in the Lamborghini Gallardo, the business man fought from his 23rd place on the grid, showing the way to many more experienced and rated drivers.
Klark Quinn and Shane van Gisbergen took third ahead of the Ferrari 458 GT3 of Tony D’Alberto and Greame Smythe.
Sprint race 2
After his giant killing performance in race one, Yasser Shahin went one better in race two.
Expelling his late race demons that raised their heads in race one, he pulled off a pass that belied his experience to take the lead with just five minutes remaining.
He was sitting behind the M Motorsport Lamborghini of Glenn Wood when he put his car on the outside of Wood on turn three, setting up an inside move at turn four. He would used a lapped car to box in Wood, for a beautifully executed move to take the lead and his win in his first weekend of Australian GT competition.
He would take the win from a hard charging Garth Tander who wanted to make up for the race one disappointment. Tander took over the Jamec Pem Audi in 13th after Steve McLaughlin’s opening stint. He would make pass after pass, but time ran out for the win, instead taking second.
Justin McMillen and Glenn Wood would hold on for the final podium spot with Grant Denyer and Matt Kingsley taking fourth.
Ricky Capo in the Modena Engineering BMW Z4 GT3 had his best race of the season to date. The former F3 racer ran inside the top 10 for the race, ending up in fifth ahead of regular European GT runner Liam Talbot who raced with John Foracre to take sixth.
The next race of the Sprint Series takes place at the Townsville street circuit on 8-10 July.
Round two of the Endurance Championship takes place at Sydney Motorsports Park on 26-28 August.
