18-Car Grid Set for Phillip Island Opener

Photo: GT World Challenge Australia

This weekend’s opening round of the new GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS at Phillip Island will feature a grid of 18 cars.

It marks an increase of one car from last year’s curtain-raiser at the same circuit, although falling one car short of the largest grid of the season last year, which was seen at both the summer Phillip Island round and the season finale at Bathurst.

Of the 18 cars contesting this weekend’s races, 13 are entered in the Pro-Am category, with four cars vying for Am honors and a single Trophy entry.

A total of seven brands are represented: Aston Martin, Audi, Mercedes-AMG, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche all return from varying degrees of participation in 2024, while Bentley will be represented on the grid for the first time since 2022.

Audi and Mercedes-AMG both have six cars each, with Ferrari the only other brand to have multiple entries in the form of Arise Racing GT’s two-car entry.

Aston Martin (Volante Rosso Motorsport), Bentley (KMB Motorsport), Lamborghini (Wall Racing) and Porsche (EMA Motorsport) all have a single car each.

Of the 13 Pro-Am class entries, only the KMB Bentley Continental GT3, shared by Valentino Astuti and a TBC second driver, and an additional Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo for Mach 1 Engineering drivers Anthony and Paul Pedersen had not been announced.

Three of the four Am class cars are Mercedes-AMGs, with the previously-announced Black Wolf Motorsport effort joined by a third Tigani Motorsport car for James and Theo Koundouris and the 111 Racing machine of Darren Currie and Grant Donaldson.

Completing the class is the OnlyFans-backed Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to be driven solo by Renee Gracie.

The single Trophy class entry is a MPC-prepared Audi with drivers yet to be announced.

Official track action begins on Friday with a one-hour free practice session and a one-hour ‘Pre-Qualifying’, which is then followed by qualifying proper on Saturday.

The first race is due to take place at 3:50 p.m. local time on Saturday (12:50 a.m. EDT), while the second race is slated for 1:45 p.m. on Sunday (Saturday 10:45 p.m. EDT).