The Monochrome GT4 Australia Championship returned to action over the weekend with Round 4 at Sandown Raceway. Located in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, Sandown is renowned for experiencing variable weather conditions, especially at this time of year, and that was certainly the case for the first outing for GT4 machinery as a standalone category at the circuit.
Qualifying took place on Saturday morning, with drying conditions greeting the field for the first session. It was the #35 Miedecke Mustang on pole, with Rylan Gray setting a 1:16.83 to take pole by half a second over Ryder Quinn in the #3 Thunder Buddies/TekworkX BMW. Championship leaders, the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren, could only manage 7th, with Tom Hayman setting a 1:17.9.
Session 2 saw the track continuing to dry, with lap times dropping into the low 1:14’s thanks to Max Geoghegan in the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren, who set a 1:14.1894 for pole. He was joined on the front row by championship rivals the #35 Miedecke Motorsport Mustang, with George Miedecke only 2 tenths away from the top time.
Gray and Miedecke win chaotic opener
Race 1 saw the #35 Miedecke Motorsports Mustang (featured) hold the lead into Turn 1 from pole, while Nash Morris got the best start of the lead group, jumping the #210 TekworkX Porsche Cayman up into third from the third row.
Rylan Gray in the #35 went about building a gap to overcome the 15-second success penalty for winning the last race, and there was chaos in the leading group. First, Morris turned the #3 Thunder Buddies BMW of Ryder Quinn around in the Turn 2-3 chicane, then a lap later, Morris himself was spun at Turn 4 by the #27 Multispares Racing Mustang of Aaron Cameron.
The race settled ahead of the pit stops, with Gray leading the #87 Triple Eight Mercedes of Hughes, followed by Cameron in the #27 Mustang. The championship-contending #25 Method Motorsport McLaren was down in eighth, after getting boxed around in the early laps.
During the pit sequence, a sprinkle of rain that had been threatening all morning hit the track at Turn 9, making conditions treacherous for the new drivers stepping in. The #20 AR Nineteen Motorsport Mercedes of Arratoon spun into the edge of the gravel, and was able to be extracted. The #17 Love Racing Mercedes wasn’t so lucky, with the rear wheels getting beached in the gravel.
But the bigger incident was still to come; Walker in the #14 Gomersall Motorsport BMW missed the braking point in the greasy conditions, and in an attempt not to pass under yellow flags, ran into the back of the #1 Method Motorsport Porsche, damaging the front end. The BMW found its way to the gravel, where it required recovery, bringing out the safety car.
This set up a grandstand finish, with the #35 Mustang of George Miedecke – recovering from the success penalty – brought right onto the tail of Leahey in the #22 Ashley Seward Motorsport BMW for the lead of the race. And when the race got underway with seven minutes left, Miedecke was through into the lead and disappeared up the road.
Once again, it was chaos in the top 10. The #27 Multispares Mustang and the #48 Purdie Racing Audi came together while battling for fifth, which opened the door for Max Geoghegan in the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren to cut through and put the McLaren into the top five for the first time in the race. Geoghegan then got through on Rintoule to put the #25 into the top three, and set about challenging Leahey for second place. Geoghegan threw the McLaren down the inside at Turn 1, but Leahey closed the door, and the two cars came together, spinning the BMW of Leahey.
Geoghegan was given a 15-second time penalty for the contact, while Leahey recovered back to sixth place.
Out in front, though, Miedecke was untroubled by the chaos behind, crossing the line with a 10-second gap to win Race 1 of the weekend with Rylan Gray. Second was the #87 JGI Triple Eight Mercedes of Hughes and Rintoule, while the #9 GWR Australia Toyota Supra of Frougas and Berryman rounded out the podium, taking Silver-Am honours in the process.
The #25 Method Motorsport McLaren crossed the line in second, but was relegated to fourth due to the 15-second penalty, while the Am class win went to the #32 Randall Racing BMW of Jacob Lawrence, after the leading #777 Method Motorsport Porsche suffered a puncture on the last lap.
Gomersall on top in tricky Race 2
Ahead of the second race on Sunday morning, the clear skies turned dark as the cars sat on the grid, before rain began to fall as the cars started their formation lap. Only a single car was already on wet tyres – the #210 TekworkX Porsche Cayman, in 9th on the grid – as others, including the #27 Multispares Racing Mustang and #101 Keltic Racing Toyota, decided to give up their grid slots to put wets on during the formation lap.
The race got underway with rooster-tails streaming from the cars as the wet weather made conditions treacherous. Pole-sitter Max Geoghegan had a half spin at the first corner, almost getting collected by half the field in the #25 Method Motorsport Mustang, as the field tip-toed through the first lap. The exception was the #210 TekworkX Porsche, with Zoe Woods carving her way into the lead within 2 laps of the race start.
She held the lead until the safety car was called, ten minutes into the race, for two incidents at the same corner. The #20 AR Nineteen Motorsport Mercedes had fallen off the road at turn 2, skating down the hill, while the #75 Tufflift Racing McLaren spun at the same corner and was beached on the edge of the track.
While the safety car was out, some teams took the chance to change onto wet tyres, only for the sun to come out and start beating down on the race surface once again.
After a 10-minute stoppage, the race went back to green, with conditions still favouring the wet-shod runners. Zoe Woods pulled out a 10-second lead within five laps in the #210 TekworkX Cayman over Jake Camilleri in the #36 Gomersall Motorsport Mustang, before another safety car intervention just at the opening of the pit window saw everyone come into the lane.
The #19 AR Nineteen Motorsport Mercedes of Mark Griffith was shown with damage on the front end and stopped on track just past the kink at Turn 5, prompting the Safety Car. However, Griffith managed to get the Mercedes AMG GT4 moving again and into the pit lane.
There was confusion over the race order, as the pit sequence had jumbled the field. The race-leading #210 TekworkX Porsche, now with Nash Morris behind the wheel, was well down the field, with only four other cars behind him on the lead lap. However, news came through that the safety car would be coming back into the pits, and green flags would be shown with effectively 20 cars a lap down.
The reason for the lack of wave-around was due to the safety car train initially forming up behind the #14 Gomersall Motorsport BMW of Glen Walker, who had stayed out when the safety car was called. When he took to the pits a lap later, the Monochrome GT4 Australia regulations dictate that, as the safety car train is already formed, the next car in line becomes the leader of the train, regardless of their position in the race.
This left Nash Morris in the lead in the #210 TekworkX Porsche, with the #27 Multispares Racing Mustang, the #33 Randall Racing BMW, the #14 Gomersall Racing BMW and the #36 Gomersall Racing Mustang as the top five, effectively a full lap ahead of the rest of the field, with 20 minutes left on the clock.
The game for Morris was to keep the wet-tyres alive as the track continued to dry and offer more lap time to those on slicks. Within 10 minutes, the slick tyre was the fastest tyre to be on, with Jarrod Hughes setting the fastest lap of the race – a 1:13.5 – in the #87 JGI Triple Eight Racing Mustang, over four seconds a lap faster than Morris out in front.
Jake Camilleri used the slick tyre on his #36 Gomersall Mustang to great effect, chasing down Morris, who could do nothing to prevent Camilleri from taking the lead with eight minutes left. In the end, Gomersall won by over 25 seconds, helping Ford to a double-victory weekend in his first round in the Mustang GT4.
Morris managed to just hold on for second place; the wet tyres on the #210 TekworkX Porsche offered just enough to keep the chasing pack at bay, with only 3 seconds separating Morris from the #35 Miedecke Motorsport Mustang.
Heading the Am class was the Randall Racing BMW of Peter Lawrence, in seventh overall, while in 8th, the Silver-Am winners were Cameron Crick and Dean Campbell in the DA Campbell Transport Mustang.
After taking a win and a podium for the weekend, Rylan Gray and George Miedecke move into the lead of the Monochrome GT4 Australia Championship in the #35 Miedecke Motorsports Mustang, taking an 11-point lead over the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren pairing of Tom Hayman and Max Geoghegan.
Aaron Seton and Jason Gomersall lead Silver-Am in the #71 Gomersall Motorsport Mustang by 10 points over Campbell and Crick in the #118 Mustang, while the #32 Randall Racing BMW of Jacob Lawrence enjoys a 29-point lead over Shane Smollen’s #1 Method Motorsport Porsche in the Am category.
Monochrome GT4 Australia returns to action at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park at The Bend for the next round of the Shannon’s Speedseries, on the 5th to 7th of September.
Images courtesy of SRO
