The Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli is back for Round 2 of the series at Phillip Island.
For this round, the take a break from the usual format to run a 101 lap race. The weekend consists of three, 20 minute practice sessions on the Friday; two 15 minute qualifying sessions on the Saturday before a 101 lap race on Saturday afternoon.
The extended race has seen a large grid – with a 37 car grid. It has also seen the teams take on a second driver, with the event attracting some big names. V8 Supercar drivers James Moffat and Garth Tander, former F1 driver and Ferrari GT development driver, Andrea Montermini, joins a raft of national sportscar racers.
The race sees two compulsory pitstops with minimum pitstop times being decided upon the the qualifying times and driver category – with the professional drivers having a longer pitstop time.
The track
The teams are concerned on whether they will be able make the race distance on two stops. Phillip Island is a notoriously high fuel usage track and some teams may have to pit more than once. The track however still has a very smooth surface, if lacking grip over the Friday running. Despite some fast times by Matt Campbell in the Ginetta and James Moffatt in the Ford both expect there is more time to come from their cars. Kevin Weeks was happy with the Ford – a car that has been traditionally difficult to set up, saying that he was very happy with the car.
The Ferrari crews
After a tumultuous weekend last time out in Adelaide and the Bathurst 12 Hour, the Ferraris were damaged with both Maranello and the Trass Family Motorsport Ferraris needing to go back to Italy for repairs. The good news is that the both teams were back with the addition of a couple Vicious Rumour Ferraris.
One of the hardest hit Ferraris – the 458 GT3 of Trass Family Motorsport was back just in time for Phillip Island. Driver, Jono Lester said that the car was as good, if not better, than new but the practice sessions made it difficult to get a good handle on the car. In fact Lester only did three laps with team mate Paul Kelly taking the lions share of the running. Kelly was learning the track and getting back to grasp with the car after the heavy shunt he sustained in race three of the opening round of the Championship.
Friday Practice
There were three practice sessions on the opening day of this two day Australian GT weekend. The first practice was wet which led to a surprising result. Marcus Marshall was the fastest in the Supabarn Porsche GT3-R. The ageing machine beat out the equally old Supaloc Ford GT with James Moffat behind the wheel. Jono Lester took third in the Trass Family Motorsport Ferrari. The trio lapped in the 1:39s and were the only three cars to make it under 1:40. The favourites for the race – the Chris Meis and Greg Crick Audi didn’t make it onto the track, though the Nurburgring 24 winner would make it out for the next session.
Practice two was run in sunshine though the conditions were cold and breezy. The track was 10 seconds faster than the opening session and it was the Ginetta G55 GT3 of Michael Hovey and Matt Campbell that topped the timesheets with a 1:28.5697. The latter driver, Matt Campbell is one of several drivers on double duty this weekend, also racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup. James Koundouris and Marcus Marshall were just 0.02 behind. Tony Quinn and Garth Tander’s McLaren 560S GT3 was third on 1:29.496.
The third session had a lengthy red flag period after a heavy crash for the Camaro of Dale Patterson and Steven Richards. The Camero went off and heavily into the wall after Lukey Heights. The team were still repairing the car as the rest of the teams left the circuit. The crash didn’t stop Dean Canto topping the timesheets. Canto racing with Andrew Taplin put the Aston Martin Vantage on top of the timesheets with a laptime of 1:28.999. They beat the Trass Family Motorsport Ferrari and Erebus Mercedes SLS GT3 during that session.
The first of two Australian GT qualifying sessions gets underway at 9:10 Saturday morning with qualifying two on at 11:20am. The 101 lap race gets underway at 2pm local time.
Sam Tickell
