The Monochrome GT4 Australia championship kicked off the 2025 season as part of the SRO-run Shannons Speedseries, with round 1 at Phillip Island Raceway. The 31-car entry featured 9 cars in Silver, 8 in Silver-Am and 14 Am entries across 8 brands represented, including the GT4 Australia debut of the Toyota Supra Evo 2.
Qualifying 1 on Saturday morning saw the #25 Method Motorsport Mclaren set pole, with Tom Hayman setting a 1:33.6 to take pole ahead of the #48 Purdie Motorsport Audi of Blake Purdie by a quarter of a second.
Clear skies and cool conditions greeted the competitors on a postcard Saturday afternoon for Race 1. It was Blake Purdie in the #48 Purdie Motorsport Audi had the best run off the grid and swooped into the Southern Loop in the lead, while Rylan Gray’s #100 Miedecke Motorsport Ford Mustang and Tom Hayman in the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren fought over second place.
Purdie skipped away, stretching out a five-second lead while Gray acted as a cork in the bottle, holding off Hayman and the chasing pack, which stretched all the way down to sixth place.
The big mover in the opening stint was Hughes in the #87 Triple Eight Racing Mercedes AMG GT4. After starting from the rear of the field due to a damaged radiator in qualifying, Hughes scythed his way through the pack, finishing the stint in the top 10 and within striking distance of the leading group.
Gray brought the #100 Mustang came into the pits as soon as the pit window opened, releasing Hayman and the following pack. Purdie brought the #48 Audi in next lap, while Hayman used the clear track in front of him to great effect, setting three personal-best laps before coming in right at the end of the pit window.
George Miedecke, now in the #100 Mustang, was released back into traffic, and had to navigate runners while warming up his tyres. Unfortunately, while following the #24 Method Motorsport McLaren through the final corner, Miedecke had a massive lose of the rear end, pitching the Mustang sideways through the gravel. Miedecke was just able to recover the car with the slightest brush of the wall, but dropped around 20 seconds.
Max Geoghegan brought the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren back onto the track, just to watch the #48 Purdie Motorsport Audi of Daniel Price sweep by on the main straight. The gap for the lead had been cut to just half a second thanks to Hayman’s good work, and Geoghegan got straight into pressuring the #48 Audi up ahead.
With 15 minutes remaining, the lead battle came across a group of lapped traffic through the Southern Loop, with both Price and Geoghegan having to tiptoe their way through battling Am-class runners. Geoghegan managed to sweep to the outside, stay there around Stoner Corner, and take the lead of the race into the Honda Hairpin.
Price held onto the rear of the McLaren, but a 10-second time penalty for pit lane speeding was handed down to the #48 Audi, preventing Price from making a realistic shot at the top spot. Geohegan would go on to take a comfortable victory.
Running in third was the #36 Mercedes AMG GT4 of Jake Camilleri, but he was handed a drive-through penalty for a pit lane infringement, dropping him down to 12th. Finishing in third, over 12 seconds behind Price in second, was Miedecke, recovering from the tail end of the top 10 after his spin.
The top five was rounded out by the #210 TekworkX Motorsport Porsche Cayman GT4 of Zoe Woods and Nash Morris, and the #87 Triple Eight Racing Mercedes of Hughes and Rintoule, recovering from their start at the back of the field.
The Silver-Am winners, in 7th overall, was Gommersall and Seton in the #71 Gommersall Motorsport Mustang, while Jacob Lawrence won the Am category in the #32 Randall Racing BMW M4 GT4, in 14th overall.
Race 2 for Monochrome GT4 Australia gets underway tomorrow [Sunday] morning at 11:30 local time (AEST).
Image courtesy of SRO
