The GTWC Australia Championship travelled to Sydney Motorsport Park for Round 2, with a headline race under lights on Saturday evening before a second race on Sunday on the agenda.
15 cars were on the entry list, with the Trophy class being represented by the #24 KFC Audi of Matt Stoupas and Gary Higgon, entering an older-spec car for the weekend.
Qualifying
The Pro-driver session saw Jaxon Evans put the #26 Arise Racing GT Ferrari on Pole for the second race of the weekend, just ahead of Wall Racing’s Tony D’Alberto in the #93 Lamborghini Huracan, by just under 2 tenths of a second.
Unfortunately, a red flag to recover the #24 KFC Audi, which spectacularly caught fire, meant that some drivers down the field missed out on setting a representative lap time, including the #66 Realta/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes of Jayden Ojeda and the #44 Geyer Valmont Racing Mercedes of Thomas Randle.
In qualifying 2, for the Am drivers, it was again the #26 Arise Racing GT Ferrari on Pole, this time at the hands of Elliot Schutte, who shared the front row with Am-class competitor Renee Gracie in the #181 OnlyFans Audi, just over a tenth behind the top of the time sheet.
Race 1
Saturday evening’s Race 1 got started under lights, with a crisp, cool but clear evening greeting the competitors and offering near-perfect conditions for GT cars. Unfortunately, due to damage from Qualifying, the #24 KFC Audi didn’t make the grid, leaving a 14-car field for the headline race.
It was Elliot Schutte in the #26 Arise Racing Ferrari 296 that took the holeshot into Turn 1, as Renee Gracie followed him through from the front row in the #181 OnlyFans Audi. Further down the pack, a coming together between the #1 Volante Rosso Aston Martin and the #7 Dayle ITM Audi saw both Liam Talbot and Tim Miles fall to the back of the pack.
Brad Schumacher was the early mover, putting the #888 Kelso Electrical Audi into second, then trying to pass Schutte for the lead at turn 2, before Schutte fought back around the outside of turns 5 and 6 to maintain the lead.
Schutte and Schumacher began to slip away, with Gracie, then Mark Rosser in the #268 BRM Audi and Sergio Pires in the #55 Geyer Valmont Mercedes completing the top 5, keeping in contact.
The shape of the race changed with the pit stops, with Schutte handing the #26 Arise Racing Ferrari over to Jaxon Evans with a 20 second lead after the pit stops. The decision not to change tyres meant that while other competitors were suffering trying to get tyres up to temperature, Evans was streaming away at the front.
The chasing battle pack was vigorous, with both Geyer Valmont Mercedes sandwiching the #888 Audi of Feeney, while Peroni’s #268 Audi and the OnlyFans Audi of Gracie were just behind. The Mercedes looked best in the second stint, as Thomas Randle squeezed the #44 Geyer Valmont Mercedes past Feeney around the outside of turn 2, to go into third place, behind the team car.
But the biggest mover in the second stint was Jayden Ojeda in the #66 Realta Tigani Motorsport Mercedes: down in 8th after the pit stops, Ojeda tore through the field, setting lap-record pace on his way to pick off those battling ahead.
Over the course of 20 minutes, Ojeda rounded up the battle for second and managed to get onto the tail of the two Geyer Valmont Mercedes, and when George King began to struggle in the #55 and dropped down to 5th, Ojeda was all over the tail of Thomas Randle’s #44 to battle for second.
Ultimately, the #44 held on, with Randle and Zalloua taking a great second place on Zalloua’s debut in the Pro-Am class, while Schutte and Evans were untroubled at the front, winning by 15 seconds.
Feeney and Schumacher finished in fourth in the #888 Audi, while King and Pires rounded out the top 5 in the second of the Geyer Valmont Mercedes. Winning Am was Gracie in the #181 OnlyFans Audi, while neither the #1 Volante Rosso Aston Martin, nor the #7 Dayle ITM Audi made significant inroads, finishing in 11th and 13th, respectively.
Race 2
It was a clean start for Race 2 on Sunday Afternoon, with Jaxon Evans leading the field from Pole in the #26 Arise Racing Ferrari. Ryan Wood went into second in the #88 Wolfbrook Audi, while Tony D’Alberto acted as a cork in the bottle in the #93 Wall Racing Lamborghini, with a train of cars struggling to find a move around the third-placed Lamborghini.
This allowed the leaders to stretch away, with Evans holding a 5 second lead prior to the pit stops, but more than 10 seconds over the group from third back, almost offsetting the 15-second time penalty for winning on Saturday.
Further afield, both Jayden Ojeda and Thomas Randle started recovery from their rear-of-the-field starts, with the #66 Tigani Motorsports Mercedes making it back up to 6th thanks to Ojeda, while Randle moved the #44 Geyer Valmont Mercedes into 9th.
The whole field dove into the pits right at the end of the pit window, with the #88 Wolfbrook Audi taking the lead thanks to the pit-time penalty for the #26 Ferrari. Steve Brooks took an 8-second lead over Elliot Schutte, whose Ferrari had been returned to the track with fresh tyres.
Brad Schumacher exited the pits in third in the #888 Kelso Electrical Audi, but had a big lock-up and ran wide into the grass at turn 2, dropping down to 6th place.
While Schumacher went about chasing those ahead to recover his position, Schutte began to eat away at Brooks’ lead. With 10 minutes remaining, Schutte was right on the bumper, and with traffic just ahead, Brooks had to battle hard to keep Schutte behind.
Ultimately, it was too much, with Schutte easing past the Audi with 7 minutes left, and going on to take a comfortable 10-second victory. Brooks brought the #88 Audi home in second, while Schumacher managed to recover to put the #888 Audi into third, a further 9 seconds back.
The #66 Lucchitti/Ojeda Realta Tigani Motorsport Mercedes finished in fourth, with Tim Miles and Brendan Leitch rounding out the top 5 in the #7 Dayle ITM Audi.
The double victory for the #26 Arise Racing Ferrari is the first ever clean sweep in the GTWC Australia Pro-Am class, with Evans and Schutte overcoming the 15-second additional pit time after winning Race 1 to take a dominant victory in Race 2.
Also, clean-sweeping the weekend was Renee Gracie in the #181 OnlyFans Audi, who swept the Am Class, finishing 11th overall in Race 2. The #24 KFC Audi took home the trophy class, finishing the race 2 laps down as the only entrant.
With the double victory, the #26 Arise Racing GT team extend its lead in the championship to 23 points, leading the Kelso Electrical #888 Audi 93 points to 70, including 3 wins from the first four races.
GTWC Australia returns to action on May 30-June 1, with Round 3 at Queensland Raceway.
Featured image courtesy of SRO
