The strategy of keeping the hot tyres on the Arise Racing Ferrari 296 at their pit stop was the key as track temperature under the Sydney Motorsport Park lights dropped.
Second place went to Marcel Zalloua and Thomas Randle in their Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG ahead of the similar car driven by Paul Lucchitti and Jayden Ojeda, who set a new lap record of 1:26.3977 in his pursuit of third spot.
In AM it was Renee Gracie (Audi) capitalised on her front row start to be in third spot when she took her stop and was a clear winner of the class.
Theo Koundouris (Mercedes) had second in AM when he handed over to brother James while Shane Woodman (Mercedes) was third. After the latter’s stop, Ben Schoots was able to chase down and pass Koundouris for second.
It was a frantic opening couple of laps where Schutte led but under challenge from Brad Schumacher who managed to pass Gracie on Lap 1. Behind them Liam Talbot (Aston Martin AMR Vantage with Declan Fraser) was spun out at Turn 4 from contact with Tim Miles (Audi with Brendon Leitch) who had to pit with damage later after contact with Steve Wyatt (Ferrari).
On the next lap, Schumacher took the outside route at Turn 2 to get the lead, albeit briefly as Schutte repassed him. Schutte maintained a small advantage though to his handover to Evans at the mandatory pitstop.
Despite a longer stop (an added 15s for victory at the last outing), Evans had a 21.4s lead after all the stops shook out. The team had elected to stay on their hot tyres while others elected to change, and the Ferrari’s pace was stronger.
Schumacher and Broc Feeney were close behind in fourth place ahead of George King and Sergio Pries (Mercedes) who were second for much of the second half of the race, only losing out in the final couple of laps.
Ryan Wood and Steve Brooks (Audi) finished sixth from Mark Rosser/Alex Peroni (Audi), Wyatt and Jordan Love, Adrian Dietz/Tony D’Alberto and Gracie in tenth.
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