It was Ferrari completing the sweep at the GT Festival as Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte took the win in Race 2 for Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS at Phillip Island.
It was a 1-2 for the Prancing Horse as Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot took the runner up slot in the sister Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 to extend their series lead.
Am Class was secured by Garth Walden and Mike Sheargold for RAM Motorsport/GWR Australia in its Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Both Arise Racing GT Ferraris heading into Turn 1 side-by-side as Evans jumped Jayden Ojeda off the start. It was Mostert taking the lead as Evans dropped to third behind Ojeda in the Realta/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 exiting the corner.
In a repeat of Race 1, Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 spun at Turn 2 on the opening lap, though this time it was Declan Fraser at the wheel.
Evans re-took second at Turn 6 as Ojeda then came under pressure from Brendon Leitch in the Dayle ITM Team MPC Audi, the Grove Racing GT Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Brenton Grove and Will Brown starting the Shaw & Partners/Kelso Electrical Team MPC R8 LMS GT3 II.
Alex Peroni ran wide in the Team BRM/ACM Finance Audi at Turn 1, but recovered just as the race came under control of the safety car.
This was due to the stricken Volante Rosso Motorsport Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3 of Alex Gardner after contact with a slowing Ojeda at Turn 11 resulting in the former ending in the gravel trap.
Ojeda pitted to complete repairs during this safety car period and failed to return.
Leading at the restart was Mostert from Arise Racing GT teammate Evans, Leitch, Grove, Brown, Peroni, David Brabham in the Harrolds Racing Mercedes-AMG and the recovering Fraser.
In Am Class, the battle was well underway between the Black Wolf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Ben Schoots and the Valmont Racing Audi of Marcel Zalloua entering the pit stop sequence.
Just as the Pro-Am Class entries were entering the pit stop window, the Trophy Class leading KMB Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3 of Valentino Astuti collided with Shane Woodman in the Black Wolf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG leading to the second safety car of the race.
There were 12-minutes remaining when the BMW safety car left the circuit and
Talbot had work to do on the restart. First, the reigning series winner demoted Stephen Grove in the Grove Racing GT Mercedes-AMG and the Dayle ITM Team MPC Audi of Tim Miles in quick succession in pursuit of his teammate Elliott Schutte.
Third was a thrilling fight led by Miles, but Grove was challenging as was Brad Schumacher, Mark Rosser, Peter Hackett and Paul Stokell. Hackett left the circuit exiting Turn 2, but it was a superb save as he dropped position to Stokell.
The two Ferraris held sway in front as a drive through penalty was handed to the Dayle ITM Team MPC Audi for a pit stop infringement.
This elevated Grove to an effective third, but Rosser, Schumacher, Stokell and Hackett were all challenging.
But Schumacher dropped out of this battle as he spun at the exit of Turn 1 as he fell to seventh in class at the end hurting his and Brown’s title chances.
In the end, it was the Evans/Schutte Ferrari taking the victory from teammates Mostert/Talbot and the Grove father-son team rounded out the podium.
Behind the top three, Peroni/Rosser finished just off the podium from Hackett/Fraser.
The first Am Class competitor was sixth outright. Walden charged to the win alongside Sheargold for RAM Motorsport/GWR Australia Mercedes-AMG GT3 from the Koundouris brothers James and Theo for Supabarn Supermarkets/Tigani Motorsport, while Ash Samadi led the Audi charge in third.
Rounding out the rest of the field were the Brown/Schumacher Audi in eighth, while just outside the top 10 was the Harrolds Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Brabham and Chris Batzios ahead of Leitch/Miles, Marc Cini and the Valmont Racing combination of Zalloua/Pires.
Scott Taylor and Paul Morris completed the sweep in Trophy Class driving the Scott Taylor Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-R (997) from the KMB Motorsport Aston Martin shared by Astuti and Darren Currie.
A late race trip to the gravel trap led to the Volante Rosso Motorsport Aston Martin being classed as a DNF alongside the Black Wolf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the similar Realta/Tigani Motorsport entry.
The next round of Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS is a three-hour event at Sydney Motorsport Park as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries on October 18-20.