GT World Challenge Australia returned to action over the weekend with the debut of the series at Hidden Valley Raceway, Darwin. The 2.870km circuit in Australia’s ‘Top End’ is characterised by the long main straight and aero-heavy final sector, with warm temperatures and an abrasive track surface expecting to force tyre management across the weekend.
13 cars made the trip, with the addition of the #666 Team BRM Audi of JP Drake and Garnett Patterson offsetting the absence of the #93 Wall Racing Lamborghini and the two missing Volante Rosso cars; Volante Rosso elected to miss the round to prepare their newly acquired second McLaren GT3 Evo for the next round of the series.
Saturday morning’s qualifying saw a stellar result for the #23 Zagame Autosport Ferrari, with Josh Buchan putting the car on pole for the first time in the series, with a blitzing 1:04.375. He only just eclipsed the Audi pair of Ryan Wood, who put the #88 Wolfbrook Audi on the front row with a 1:04.4381, followed by the #1 Kelso Electrical Audi of Broc Feeney, only eight ten-thousandths of a second further back.
Qualifying 2 saw another tight battle for the front, with Brad Schumacher taking pole with a 1:05.393, just over a tenth ahead of Mark Rosser’s best lap, making it an all Audi front row; the #1 Kelso Electrical Audi ahead of the #268 Team BRM Audi. It was an incredibly tight session, with the top 7 cars separated by less than 3 tenths of a second.
However, a post-qualifying protest saw the #1 Audi given a 3-grid spot penalty for impeding in Qualifying 2, dropping Schumacher off the front row and promoting Rosser to the pole.
Race 1
Saturday’s Race 1 got off to a chaotic start. Running three-wide into the first corner, the #26 Arise Racing Ferrari of Elliot Schutte braked too deep and made contact with the #88 Wolfbrook Motorsport Audi of Steve Brooks, who then collected the #44 Geyer Valmont Racing Mercedes-AMG of Sergio Pires. Brad Schumacher managed to go around the outside of the pack, only to spin his #1 Kelso Electrical Audi on the exit of the corner and drop to the rear of the field, while the #2 Team MPC Audi of Darren Currie also found the grass after contact with the #56 Kollosche Mercedes-AMG of Shane Smollen, all in the first corner.
The end result was the elimination of the #26 Ferrari due to damage, the #88 Audi having to repair a flapping piece of bodywork, and the reigning champions at the back of the field with a serious recovery drive to get back into the mix.
All of that was immaterial to pole-sitter Mark Rosser, who avoided all the chaos behind and led comfortably in the #268 BRM Audi, stretching to a 10-second lead over Paul Lucchitti in the #66 Move My Wheels Mercedes-AMG. Lucchitti led a battle pack of Smollen, the #181 Onlyfans Ferrari of Renee Gracie, JP Drake’s #666 BRM Audi and the #44 Geyer Valmont Mercedes-AMG of Pires.
It wasn’t long before that group was joined by Schumacher, who was setting a hot pace in the #1 Audi. He quickly rounded up Campbell’s Zagame Ferrari for seventh, before passing Smollen – who had run wide and lost his spot at the head of the train – for sixth a lap later. In trying to pass Pires for fifth, Schumacher made a forceful move at Turn 5 just as Pires began to close the door. Schumacher got onto the kerb, which bounced the #1 Audi into the rear of Pires’ #44 Mercedes-AMG just enough to open the door for the Audi to squeeze through, but a secondary contact on corner exit pushed Pires off track. The stewards weren’t pleased with the contacts, giving Schumacher a five-second penalty for forcing his way through.
Come the opening of the pit sequence, Rosser had a comfortable 16-second lead over the #66 Mercedes-AMG of Lucchitti, who was just holding off Gracie’s #181 Ferrari, with Schumacher just behind in the #1 Kelso Electrical Audi. The gap at the front of the field was enough for the #268 Team BRM Audi to return to the lead regardless of any success penalty, and Alex Peroni was back on track with a comfortable advantage over Jayden Ojeda, now in the #66. The order was maintained behind, with Davison now behind the wheel of the #181 Onlyfans Ferrari, and Feeney a little further back due to the additional five seconds for the #1 Audi.
Despite the gaps slowly closing over the back half of the stint, the order never looked under threat of changing, and Peroni comfortably brought the #268 Team BRM Audi home for his and Rosser’s first win of the season. Ojeda and Lucchitti were second in the #66 Move My Wheels Mercedes-AMG, holding off both Davison and Feeney, who finished third and fourth respectively.
The Zagame Autosport Ferrari of Buchan and Campbell rounded out the top 5, while Patterson and Drake finished 6th on their return to the series in the #666 Team BRM Audi. Winning the Trophy class was the KFC Audi of Stoupas and Stokell, in 9th overall.
Race 2
Sunday’s Race 2 again saw contact at the first corner, with the front row of the grid coming to blows at the pinch point of Turn 1. Ryan Wood tried to squeeze the #88 Wolfbrook Audi to the apex while Josh Buchan held the #23 Zagame Ferrari to the inside, with the Ferrari taking the kerb and bouncing into the rear-left of the Audi on the outside. This resulted in Wood getting bumped off the circuit. Further down the pack, the #44 Geyer Valmont Mercedes-AMG of Brendan Leitch also found the grass, and spun to the rear of the field.
A post-race investigation was held for the first corner contact, with the stewards deeming the contact a racing incident.
This let Buchan take command of the race, and he immediately set about building a gap over Broc Feeney in second place. Buchan set a new tin-top lap record around Hidden Valley – a 1:04.8293 – on his way to building a three-second lead early in the stint, while Wood also dipped into the 4’s on his way back through the field.
As the pit stops approached, Feeney began to close the gap down to Buchan, putting the #1 Kelso Electrical Audi less than a second behind the #23 Zagame Ferrari as the field filed into the pits. The #268 Team BRM Audi was third, but with an additional 15 seconds added to their pit stop due to taking the win in race 1, while Wood had managed to recover the #88 Wolfbrook Audi to fourth place, just over 10 seconds behind the leaders.
A clean stop from the Kelso Electrical team put Brad Schumacher right on the tail of Cam Campbell as the pair exited the pits, with Campbell forced immediately onto the defensive in the #23 Zagame Ferrari. Schumacher attempted to manoeuvre the Audi into a passing position, but Campbell kept it clean, and held Schumacher at bay for a number of laps.
The defence allowed Steve Brooks to close a six-second gap and turned the battle for the lead into a three-way fight, with the #88 Wolfbrook Audi right on the tail of the #1 Audi with just over 10 minutes left. Schumacher then got a great run out of the final corner, tucking right under the rear wing of the Ferrari 296 ahead, and made the move for the lead into Turn 1.
That was enough for Schumacher who then immediately broke away from the battle for second, as Campbell had his mirrors full of the Audi of Steve Brooks. Once again, Campbell defended valiantly, before getting passed at Turn 1 with eight minutes left on the clock.
That would be the top three, with Schumacher comfortably bringing the #1 Kelso Electrical Audi home for the win, with Brooks in second, and a great result for Campbell and Buchan in third.
Further down the field, there was drama for the #268 Team BRM Audi of Mark Rosser. Rosser tagged the rear of Darren Currie at Turn 6, spinning the #2 Team MPC Audi, and earning a five-second post-race penalty. After Rosser went off himself at Turn 1, that five-second penalty turned into three positions, dropping Rosser from fourth to seventh, as he headed a battle pack that included Currie, the #44 Geyer Valmont Mercedes-AMG of Pires, and the #26 Arise Racing Ferrari of Schutte.
Winning the Trophy class was the #71 AED Consulting Porsche of Youlden and Halstead, a lap ahead of the #24 KFC Audi.
A solid weekend from the #1 Kelso Electrical Audi pair of Schumacher and Feeney sees them jump to the top of the GTWC Australia standings, with 111 points. Second place is a tie on 101 points between the #44 Geyer Valmont Mercedes-AMG pair of Leitch and Pires, alongside Mark Rosser in the #268 Team BRM Audi. Fourth place is only another 7 points further back; the #66 Move My Wheels Mercedes-AMG pair of Ojeda and Lucchitti sit on 94 points.
GT World Challenge Australia heads to Sydney Motorsport Park for the penultimate round of the season, on the weekend of the 18th-20th of September.
Images courtesy of GT World Challenge Australia and Bosch Motorsport Australia
