Tim Leahey and Cody Burcher also won the Silver class after they took over the lead shortly after the compulsory pit stops. They held off the challenge from Rylan Gray and George Miedecke (Ford Mustang) by 1.6s.

Third and fourth were also Silver entries with Jake Camilleri in a solo effort aboard his Mercedes-AMG, placed ahead of the Marcus Flack and Tom Hayman McLaren Artura.

Pro-Am and fifth outright was decided two laps from the finish when Jason Gomersall (in the Mustang he shared with Aaron Seton) passed Ben Newman (driving with Lochie Doulton in a Mercedes).

Shane Smollen (Porsche 718 Cayman with Lachlan Mineeff) also passed the Mercedes but had a 5.0s penalty that would be applied post-race.

Polesitter Dalton won the start and proceeded to edge away from what was an early and feisty fight for second place.

Miedecke had slipped past front row starter Seton for second. In the meantime Ryder Quinn (in Steve Jakic’s BMW) and Leahey slipped ahead of Mineeff before Quinn attacked the Mustang duo. He soon passed Seton and then Miedecke for second.

Despite almost 9.0s between them, they were among the last to take their compulsory stops whilst running first and second. Newman and Jakic took over the cars and resumed at the front 5.8s apart, but not for long as Bucher split them with 16mins to and Gray was soon third.

On Lap 16 Burcher and Gray passed Newman at Forrest Elbow and set their sights on an epic run to the flag, although Bucher was able to edge away slightly over the final laps.

AM class honours went to Grant Denyer and Anthony Soole (McLaren 570S) ahead of Bailey and Rob Love (Mercedes) and Andrew Georgiadis and Ramu Farrell (Porsche).

The latter two had to take evasive action when Mark Griffith (Mercedes) and Peter Lawrence (BMW) had a scary clash at McPhillamy Park on the 19th of the 24-lap one-hour race.

The GT4s will get to do it all again on Sunday with the second race scheduled for 10:50am AEDT.