Evans, Schutte Take Clean Sweep of Sydney Wins
Arise Racing GT Ferrari pair extend championship lead with perfect weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park...
Photo: GT World Challenge Australia
Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte strengthened their grip on this year’s GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS title race with a clean sweep of victories in last weekend’s second round of the season at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The drivers of the No. 1 Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 took a straightforward pole-to-win in Saturday evening’s opener under the floodlights, and overcame a success penalty in Sunday’s finale to complete a perfect weekend.
It means Evans and Schutte find themselves with a commanding 39-point advantage in the drivers’ standings over Brad Schumacher and Broc Feeney, who remain the only drivers to have beaten the dominant Arise Ferrari pair so far this season.
Schumacher was the only driver to threaten the No. 1 Ferrari during Saturday’s race as Schutte lost the advantage to the Kelso Electrical-backed Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II at the start.
However, Schutte found a way back ahead of Schumacher and had built a solid gap out front by the time he pitted to hand over the car to Evans.
From there, it was plain sailing for Evans, who took the checkered flag by a commanding 15 seconds from the No. 44 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of debutant Thomas Randle and returnee Marcel Zalloua in second place.
Feeney had already dropped to third when he took over the No. 888 Audi from Schumacher, slipping behind George King in the No. 55 Tigani Mercedes-AMG, and at the end of his out lap was passed by Randle in the No. 44 Mercedes-AMG.
With a little over five minutes left, Randle passed King to grab second, while Jayden Ojeda charged all the way from eighth to claim the final spot on the podium in the No. 66 Realta-sponsored Tigani Mercedes-AMG started by Paul Lucchitti.
King, who shared the No. 55 car with Sergio Pires, finally slipped to fifth behind Feeney.
In the second race, Evans took the start and built a significant lead over second-placed Ryan Wood in the No. 88 MPC Audi, who made a significant early pass on the Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Tony D’Alberto.
The success penalty for victory on Saturday meant that Schutte would emerge behind his opposite number in the No. 88 car, Steve Brooks, after the stops, but it took just ten minutes for Schutte to close down and pass for the lead.
Brooks trailed by just under ten seconds at the finish as he banked second place, while the podium was completed by Feeney and Schumacher, with Feeney having been stuck in fourth behind D’Alberto’s Lambo throughout his opening stint.
Lucchitti brought home the No. 66 Mercedes-AMG started by Ojeda in fourth place, while Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles completed the top five in the No. 7 MPC Audi.
Renee Gracie took Am class honors in both races running solo aboard the No. 181 OnlyFans-sponsored MPC Audi, catapulting her into the lead of the class standings ahead of Black Wolf Mercedes-AMG pair Shane Woodman and Ben Schoots.
The GTWC Australia season continues with the third round at Queensland Raceway on May 30-June 1.
