Arise Ferrari, Kelso MPC Audi Split Phillip Island Victories

Photo: GT World Challenge Australia

Ferrari squad Arise Racing GT opened its GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS campaign with a victory in last weekend’s Phillip Island opener, as the Kelso Electrical-backed Melbourne Performance Centre Audi also tasted success.

Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte took a lights-to-flag win in their No. 26 Ferrari 296 GT3 in Saturday’s first race of the weekend, while it was the turn of Brad Schumacher and Broc Feeney in the No. 888 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to shine in Sunday’s finale.

The grid for the Phillip Island double-header was reduced by two cars before the weekend had started with the withdrawal of the KMB Motorsport Bentley Continental GT3 and the Trophy Class-entered MPC Audi, while the 111 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo failed to start either race, further cutting the field to 15 cars.

It had been Volante Rosso’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 that scored the first pole of the new season, only for reigning champion Liam Talbot and his new teammate Declan Fraser to be excluded from qualifying for a technical infringement.

That promoted the No. 26 Arise Ferrari to the top spot, and Schutte held the lead throughout the opening stint, despite briefly losing out to Sergio Pires in the No. 55 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo on the opening lap.

With almost the entire field completing their mandatory pit stops together, Evans maintained the No. 26 car’s lead when he took over from Schutte, with the Kelso MPC Audi of Feeney — taking over from Schumacher — leaping to second.

However, the driver on the move in the second stint was Jayden Ojeda, who ran sixth in the No. 55 Tigani Mercedes-AMG started by Paul Lucchitti.

Ojeda soon made his way up to fourth place and passed Alex Peroni’s Team BRM Audi, which was carrying a penalty for a pit stop infringement, for third before repeating the trick on Feeney in the Kelso MPC Audi with eight minutes to go.

As the Tigani Mercedes-AMG applied the pressure, Evans would eventually take the checkered flag with just a quarter of a second in hand over Ojeda.

Feeney and Schumacher meanwhile lost out on a third-place finish with a last lap puncture, which meant the podium was completed by another MPC Audi, the Dayle ITM-backed No. 7 car of Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles.

Peroni had finished third on the road in the Audi started by Mark Rosser, but their 15-second penalty dropped them to seventh.

Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific selected driver Dorian Boccolacci claimed pole in the No. 911 EMA Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R for Sunday’s second race, but an illegal start propelled Peroni’s BRM Audi into an early lead.

The offense landed Peroni a five-second penalty, but he and Boccolacci were able to gap the rest of the field in the first half of the race as Evans and Ojeda embarked on a fierce duel for third place in a reprise of the fight for the win on Saturday.

By the time Ojeda finally managed to clear Evans, however, the Mercedes-AMG Junior Driver was almost nine seconds away from the lead.

Rosser maintained the lead through the mandatory pit stops, but a slow changeover from Boccolacci to Shane Smollen cost the EMA Porsche ground, with the Arise Ferrari and Tigani Mercedes-AMG serving penalties for their Saturday success.

All of that meant it was Schumacher, whose co-driver Feeney had run seventh in the opening stint, that emerged as Rosser’s nearest rival, and the Kelso MPC Audi inherited the lead when Rosser served a drive-through penalty for a pit stop infraction.

There was late drama as rain hit Phillip Island in the closing minutes, with Schumacher holding a charging Talbot, who had climbed all the way from 10th in the Volante Rosso Aston Martin to second, at bay by just under eight tenths of a second.

Schutte brought home the Arise Ferrari third in the increasingly treacherous conditions with a late pass on the Tigani Mercedes-AMG of Pires.

Despite picking up a penalty for Miles tipping Lucchitti’s Mercedes-AMG into a spin shortly after the pit stops, the MPC Audi of Miles and Leitch completed the top five.

The BRM Audi was finally not classified as Rosser spun into the gravel late on, while the EMA Porsche was classified 11th after Smollen picked up a right-rear puncture.

Evans and Schutte enjoy an early championship lead on 41 points ahead of Talbot and Fraser, who were fifth in Race 1, on 28 points and Schumacher and Feeney on 27.

Am class honors were shared by the No. 16 Black Wolf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Ben Schoots and Shane Woodman and the OnlyFans MPC Audi of Rene Gracie, who lost the chance of a double victory with a penalty in Saturday’s opener.

The GTWC Australia season continues at Sydney Motorsport Park on May 2-4.