It was a drama filled opening Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS race at Queensland Raceway as Team BRM/ACM Finance’s Mark Rosser and Alex Peroni made it five winners from as many races this season.
The race wasn’t more than a corner old when Theo Koundouris spun the Supabarn Supermarkets/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo resulting in a collision with Hallmarc Team MPC’s Marc Cini. Heading into the sand trap in avoidance was the Black Wolf Motorsport entry of Shane Woodman and Harrolds Racing’s Chris Batzios, but the pair of Mercedes-AMGs continued.
Paul Stokell led the way for a majority of the opening stint in the OnlyFans Team MPC Audi until stablemate Ash Samadi spun at Turn 3 leading to a safety car.
During this neutralisation of the race, Brad Schumacher in the title contending Shaw & Partners/Kelso Electrical Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II pitted to change a slow leaking tyre, but emerged out with no drama.
Stokell led off the restart from Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Peter Hackett, the lead Arise Racing GT Ferrari of Liam Talbot, Tim Miles for Dayle ITM Team MPC and RAM Motorsport’s Garth Walden at the head of Am Class.
Right on the eve of the pit stop window, Darren Currie spun the KMB Motorsport Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 into the Turn 6 sand trap.
As a result of the prolonged safety car period during the pit window, pit stops were allowed to be made as the Ams, then Pro-Am entries completed service switching the race order.
Stephen Grove started the Grove Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and was in the wars in the opening lap incident, but the team used a safety car to complete repairs to the bonnet, then it was given a drive through and through all this remained in contention.
As the Pro-Am drivers completed service, this elevated the Black Wolf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG with Ben Schoots at the wheel into the outright lead from the Trophy Class Porsche of Scott Taylor Motorsport steered by Paul Morris.
The race restarted for the third time with 20 minutes left on the clock, but it wasn’t green for long as drama occurred at Turn 1.
A dive from Peroni led to contact between Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Declan Fraser and Renee Gracie in the OnlyFans Team MPC Audi.
Gracie half spun as the remainder of the field tried to avoid, but Brenton Grove made heavy contact ruling both the Audi and Grove Racing Mercedes-AMG out of the contest.
As a reaction, title contender Will Brown and Chaz Mostert made contact resulting in the former’s Audi entering the lane with damaged steering. Despite the Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia’s best efforts, Brown was unable to make a return.
Mostert also pitted, but was able to recover to take 10th outright.
Schoots still remained in the lead, but at the final restart was unable to hold back New Zealand ace Brendon Leitch in the Dayle ITM Audi and Peroni.
However, Leitch was penalised twice for an unsafe release and overlap at the restart totalling 10s, so the race was on to build a margin.
Although he broke the lap record, Leitch was unable to build enough margin and had to settle for third.
It was an intense final laps for Peroni as he not only had to keep the margin to Leitch under 10s, but also had a charging Jayden Ojeda in pursuit. So quick was Ojeda, he broke Leitch’s fresh lap record of 1m 07.702s as he fell just short in the Realta/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.
Peroni scored he and Rosser’s first win from Ojeda pairing Paul Lucchitti, New Zealand pair Leitch and Miles, with Arise Racing GT’s Elliott Schutte partnering Jaxon Evans fourth.
In a remarkable result, Woodman and Schoots scored the Am Class victory in fifth outright, holding off the Koundouris brothers for the win.
Third in Am Class was the RAM Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Mike Sheargold and Walden.
Fraser recovered to eighth in the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG from the Trophy Class winner Scott Taylor and Morris in the Scott Taylor Motorsport Porsche.
Harrolds Racing duo Ross Poulakis and Chris Batzios finished 11th ahead of Samadi, who was multiple laps down.
The new Volante Rosso Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3 failed to make the start after a qualifying incident.
The second and final race at Queensland Raceway for Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS is scheduled for tomorrow at 11:55am AEST live on GTWorld YouTube and locally on 7plus.