The SRO GT World Challenge Australia kicked off with Round 1 at Phillip Island consisting of two hour-long races, each with a compulsory pit stop of 106 seconds required. The 21 car field for the season opener consisted of 6 entries each in Pro-Am, Am, and Trophy class (for older-spec GT3 machinery), as well as three GT4 machines.
Qualifying on Friday saw Brett Hobson in the #96 Hobson Motorsport Nissan Nismo GT3 take a surprise pole in the Am only session for race 1. Hobson’s 1:30.1906 in his first outing in the updated Nissan GTR putting him ahead of Liam Talbot in the #65 Coinspot Audi R8, with another Audi in the form of Yasser Shahin’s #1 The Bend Motorsport Park R8 in third. Qualifying for race 2 allowed the Professional drivers into the mix, with Chaz Mostert putting the #65 Coinspot Audi R8 on pole, ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen in the #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes AMG by only 0.1058s.
Pristine conditions greeted the competitors for Race 1 on Saturday. Hobson took the holeshot into turn 1 from the pole position, with Talbot and Steven Grove in the #4 Grove Racing Porsche 911 passing Shahin for third. It took Shahin 2 laps to find his way past Grove, allowing Hobson and Talbot to escape to a 4-second lead. Shahin closed down the gap in the #1, as Talbot made a move to take the lead of the race in the #65 Coinspot Audi R8, and Shahin followed him through into second, relegating Hobson’s Nissan to third.
The battle was interrupted by a Safety Car called 10 minutes into the race to recover the damaged #11 Our Kloud Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machine. Eric Constantinidis spinning on the exit of Lukey Heights while under pressure from Michael Bailey in the #38 Trading Garage Bentley GT3, and impacting the tyre barrier on driver’s right. Eric was able to step out of the car unassisted, but the Porsche required lifting onto a flatbed, retiring from the race.
The restart saw Talbot, Shahin, Hobson and Grove stretch away from the field due to the positioning of a lapped runner in the form of Madeline Stewart in the #22 Grifcorp Ginetta GT4, with Tony Bates in the #24 Bostik-AFS Logistics Audi picking up a 5-second penalty for passing the Ginetta before the control line on the restart. Come the pit stops, the penalty for Bates saw his co-driver David Reynolds drop behind the #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes AMG, with Shane Van Gisbergen now behind the wheel. Upfront, Mostert had taken over the #65 Coinspot Audi and held the lead over Christopher Mies in the #1 Bent Motorsport Park Audi, and Brenton Grove in the #4 Grove Racing Porsche 911 in third.
From there, Mostert managed the traffic and the gap to take the win for himself and Talbot, with a gap of 6 seconds over Mies and Shahin in second place. Third went to Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Shane Van Gisbergen in the #888 Mercedes; Van Gisbergen was able to hold off the charge of David Reynolds in the #24 after Brenton Grove ran wide at Southern Loop, losing position to the pair.
The Trophy class was won by Brad Schumacher in the #55 Kelso Electrical Audi R8, after much of the race had been controlled by Brett Hobson’s #96 Nissan GT3. Unfortunately for Hobson, he was given a 5-second penalty for undercutting the minimum pit stop time by half a second, dropping him to 10th place overall and second in class.
Am class went to Paul Stokell and Gary Higgon in the #2 KFC Audi R8, with Stokell making the pass for the lead on Matt Stoupas in the #23 KFC Audi R8 around the outside of the Hayshed on the penultimate lap of the race. Garth Walden and Mike Sheargold finished second in Am in the #45 RAM Motorsports Mercedes AMG, with Stoupas finishing third in class.
GT4 was won by the #34 Harrolds Racing Mercedes AMG GT4 of Ross Poulakis and third-generation-racer Sam Brabham, son of 24 hours of Le Mans winner David and grandson of Formula 1 World Champion Sir Jack.
In race 2, Mies took the holeshot from the second row of the grid, diving to the inside into turn 1 ahead of Van Gisbergen and Mostert. He immediately worked at stretching a gap in the #1 Bend Motorsport Park Audi R8, as Van Gisbergen in the #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes AMG held up the rest of the pack. Mostert in the #65 Coinspot Audi R8 was the first to pounce, rounding up Van Gisbergen around the outside of the Hayshed, before Reynolds in the #24 Bostik-AFS Logistics Audi R8 made the pass for third at MG a lap later, relegating Van Gisbergen to 4th.
Mostert found his way onto the back of Mies, and the pair battled for the lead all the way through to the pit window. Traffic made it difficult for Mostert, with Mies able to navigate the backmarkers without losing his advantage, until a moment through Southern Loop. The two Porsches of Koutsomidis and Constantinidis had just come out of the pits as the lead battle approached at full speed, catching Mies out as he tried to pass the pair on the exit of Southern Loop. Mies hit the brakes just as Mostert moved to make a pass of his own, resulting in contact between the two leaders, and damage to the front of Mostert’s #65 Audi. Despite significant tyre smoke, both cars managed to continue, with Mostert bringing the #65 into the pits at the end of the lap.
After the pit stops, it was Tony Bates in the #24 Bostik-AFS Logistics Audi that emerged in the lead, as the success adjustment to the pit stops for the #1 The Bend Motorsport Park Audi and #65 Coinspot Audi saw them a further 5 and 15 seconds further back respectfully. Yasser Shahin, now at the wheel of the #1 Bend Motorsport Park Audi, closed the gap with 15 minutes remaining, and made a forceful move for the lead at MG. Diving down the inside, Shahin claimed the apex from Bates, and leant on the #24 on the exit, preventing Bates from holding the inside line through the final corners and relegating him to second place.
Shahin would remain untroubled to the end of the race and took a convincing win to start his title defence. Second place went to Liam Talbot and Chaz Mostert in the #65 Coinspot Audi, with Talbot chasing down Bates to take second with 7 minutes remaining. Bates and Reynolds held on for third in the #24 Bostik-AFS Logistics Audi, completing an all Audi podium.
Fourth place overall and winning the Trophy class was Brad Schumacher in the #55 Kelso Electrical Audi R8. Schumacher had an incredible second half of the race, coming from 7th place after the pit stops and passing both the #4 Grove Racing Porsche 911 and the #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes AMG in the dying moments of the race. Stephen Grove also managed to pass the #888 on the final lap, putting the #4 Grove Racing Porsche into 5th place and the first of the non-Audi finishers, with Prince Jefri Ibrahim bringing the #888 Mercedes AMG home in 6th.
The leading Am class finisher was the #23 KFC Audi R8 of Matt Stoupas, who finished in 7th place, while the GT4 winner was the #34 Harrolds Racing Mercedes AMG of Polakis and Brabham, completing a perfect weekend for the pair.
The SRO GT World Challenge Australia resumes as part of the Bathurst 12 Hour at Mount Panorama, on the 13th-15th of May.
