Monochrome GT4 Australia headed up north to join the Shannons Speedseries round at Hidden Valley, Darwin. A 27-car grid saw the return of both the #1 Gomersall Racing and the #118 Method Motorsport Mustangs, after both cars missed the previous round at Queensland Raceway due to damage sustained during Round 2 at The Bend.
Saturday morning’s Qualifying sessions saw a mix of names at the top of the time sheets, with Qualifying 1 being taken by Blake Purdie in the #48 Purdie Racing Audi. His lap time – a 1:09.8210 – was the best of the field by just over a tenth, with the #114 Team Soutar McLaren slotting into second thanks to New Zealand driver William Exton. The second row was secured by two championship rivals; the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren from the #35 Miedecke Motorsport Mustang.
Qualifying 2 saw a surprise pole from Jensen Shearer in the #46 RENNEN Motorsport Porsche, who set a 1:09.8598 to clear Jett Murray’s #25 Method Motorsport McLaren by less than a tenth of a second. Jobe Stewart put the #48 Purdie Racing Audi into third, with a pair of Mustangs – the #227 Multispares Racing example from the #35 Miedecke Motorsport car – rounding out the top five.
Race 1
It was a remarkably clean start to Saturday’s Race 1, with Blake Purdie just managing to hold onto the lead from the pole through Turn 1, leading the field in his #48 Purdie Racing Audi. The whole field made it through the first corner unscathed, with Purdie breaking out to a 3 second lead over Will Exton’s #114 Team Soutar McLaren in the early stages.
The race was steady, with small gaps but no real challenges for positions in the opening stint. Exton began to bring the gap down to Purdie out front, with the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren of Hayman latching on to create a 3-car battle for the lead, before Purdie peeled into the pits at the opening of the pit window.
The two McLarens elected to stay out, which proved to be the better move as the #48 Purdie Racing Audi lost time in a congested pit lane. Hayman was the next to blink, bringing the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren in four laps later, while Exton was one of the last into the lane, handing the #114 Team Soutar Motorsport McLaren over to Jack Johnson a lap later.
Despite having to deal with traffic, the #114 emerged from the pit lane in the lead of the race, with a two-second lead over the early-pitting #35 Miedecke Motorsports Mustang. George Miedecke at the wheel put the pressure on Johnson, but the McLaren driver was disciplined, and was able to stretch out to a small lead.
The lead would be enough, with Jack Johnson controlling the second stint to take the first victory for himself and Will Exton, and the first win for Team Soutar Motorsport. George Miedecke and Blake Tracey finished second in the #35 Miedecke Motorsports Mustang, while third went the way of the #62 Wallis Motorsports Mustang of Paley and Wallis.
The top five was rounded out by the two Multispares Racing Mustangs – the #27 from the #227 – while the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren and the #48 Purdie Racing Audi, who had started the race battling for the lead, finished in 6th and 7th respectively.
Winning Silver-Am was the #88 CAMM Quarries/Concrete Racing Toyota Supra of Evenett and Torti, less than a second ahead of the #118 Method Motorsport Mustang in their battle for 9th and 10th overall.
The Am class was won by Jarrod Keyte in the #21 Ekebol MPC Mustang, 2 seconds ahead of the Gomersall Motorsport #14 Mustang of Glenn Walker.
Race 2
Sunday afternoon’s Race 2 saw the front row come to blows on the exit of Turn 1, as the #227 Multispares Racing Mustang of Mason Harvey tried to go around the outside of Jensen Shearer’s pole-sitting #46 RENNEN Motorsport Porsche. Shearer opened the steering on the exit of the corner, and collected the rear-left of the #227, pitching the Mustang into a spin and into the concrete wall, and dropping Shearer down to the tail end of the top 10.
The damage to the #227 Mustang required the intervention of the Safety Car, with Shearer adjudged to be at fault for the contact, and earning a drive through penalty.
The contact had allowed Jett Murray to take the lead in the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren, and he led the field away after a 10 minute stoppage. It was the Miedecke Motorsport Mustang pair in second and third – 35 from 95 – with the #62 Wallis Motorsport Mustang of Wallis in fourth, and the #9 GWR Australia Supra of White in fifth place.
The race began to settle into a rhythm before another Safety Car was called to extract the #88 CAMM Quarries/Concrete Toyota Supra from the gravel at Turn 9. Andrew Torti was facing the wrong way in the gravel trap, and despite attempting to rock the Supra forward and backwards to extract it from the gravel, ended up getting beached, and had to be extracted.
This reset the field once again, just before the opening of the pit stop window. Once the race got back under green, there was a trickle of cars taking their compulsory stop each lap, as the field cycled through the pit sequence. The #48 Purdie Racing Audi was one of the early stoppers, and managed to jump a few of their competitors ahead who were stuck in traffic through the pit sequence. The leading #35 Miedecke Motorsport Mustang was one of the last to pit, trying to offset their additional 10 seconds in the lane for finishing second in Race 1, and they were followed in by the #7 Slatterys/McElrea BMW of Jay Murray.
The late pit ploy worked for Murray, who maintained a second place on track ahead of Purdie in the #48 Purdie Racing Audi, while Tom Hayman retook the race lead in the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren. Murray had to work hard to defend from Purdie on his out lap, and he eventually yielded second place to Purdie down the main straight. Purdie then set about chasing the gap down to Hayman ahead, but could never get close enough to mount a charge.
Tom Hayman brought the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren home to win by 3 seconds, with the #48 Purdie Racing Audi in second, and a great result by Jay Murray to finish third in the #7 Slatterys/McElrea BMW.
Behind the lead trio, there were battles aplenty, with a battle pack at one stage stretching from sixth down to 14th place. It was the #95 Miedecke Motorsport Mustang who came out on top, with Dowdall and Cutts at the wheel, ahead of the #27 Multispares Mustang that had started on the back of the grid after an engine change.
Winning the Silver-Am class was the #118 Method Motorsport Mustang, with Cody Burcher charging down the pack ahead in the last stint to finish in seventh overall, three positions ahead of the #1 Gomersall Motorsport Mustang, second in class. Winning Am was the #14 Gomersall Motorsport McLaren of Glenn Walker, in 16th overall.
The #227 Multispares Racing Mustang and #88 CAMM Quarries/Concrete Toyotas were DNFs, as well as the Race 1-winning #114 Team Soutar Racing McLaren. Jack Johnson brought the McLaren into the pits during the first safety car, with a power steering failure reported by the team.
Hayman and Murray’s victory in Race 2 stretched their lead in the championship, with the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren pair sitting on 109 points. Their lead is 24 points, from the #48 Purdie Racing Audi pair of Purdie and Stewart, while the #27 Multispares Mustang pair of Cameron and Dalton are only a single point further back. Blake Tracey and George Miedecke are only 3 points behind Dalton and Cameron; the #35 Miedecke Motorsports Mustang duo sit on 81 points.
Ryder Quinn (#3 Thunder Buddies BMW) leads the Silver-Am standings by 15 points from Zac Soutar and Glenn Nirwan (#75 Tufflift Racing McLaren), while the Am-class championship is separated by only a single point; Lillis and Callaghan (#64 Method Motorsport Porsche) lead Glenn Walker (#14 Gomersall Motorsport Mustang) 159 points to 158.
Monochrome GT4 Australia resumes for Round 5 at Sydney Motorsport Park on the 18th-20th of September.
Images courtesy of Monochrome GT4 Australia
