The Team BRM duo stayed out of trouble and more importantly stayed on the track, allowing them to come home comfortably ahead of the championship-leading #26 Ferrari 296 of Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte.
Rosser managed to claw his way past title the title-contending #888 Audi R8 of Brad Schumacher on the opening lap to put himself in the box seat to take the lead from Liam Talbot in the #1 Aston Martin due to the additional 15 seconds of pit stop time earned from the Sandown victory.
“We said at the start of the weekend a win minimum, so we’re happy to get it,” said Peroni.
“Mark did all the work for me. The team did a great pit stop, we came out with a big lead, and it was just about consolidating it, which hasn’t been that simple for us this year.
“We did put a bit of pressure on ourselves this weekend, it is [Team BRM’s] home track, we’ve done a few laps here, and we both weren’t entirely happy with qualifying. I didn’t do a great run so it’s nice to get redemption here.”
Rosser’s goal at the race start was to make as much ground on Talbot as possible, while Talbot was on the charge to try and build a gap over the Schumacher/Feeney entry to get enough advantage to not lose position in the pit stop cycle.
Buy tickets
Unfortunately for Talbot, the push to build the lead led to a mistake as he came unstuck at Turn 13 just four laps in, spinning into the barrier and dropping down the order to fifth.
The damage was minimal, allowing the reigning champion to continue at a blistering pace.
Just one lap later, almost the same fate found Am Class leader Renee Gracie in her bid to hold off the Koundouris brothers in the #47 Mercedes-AMG, finding the grass and dropping down the order.
As the Am Class cars peeled in for their pit stops right as the window opened, James Koundouris handed over to bother Theo, the pair building a commanding lead over Renee Gracie thanks to the spin and additional pit stop time earned from her Sandown win.
Just two laps later, the race leaders peeled in as their pit window opened.
The big winner was the #55 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Marcell Zalloua and George King, with King emerging in fifth position form a 10th place start.
Title contenders Evans and Feeney battled for the rest of the race, with Feeney desperately trying to get by the Ferrari to no avail.
Ryan Wood put in a mighty effort to catch MPC Audi teammate Feeney and fight for the final podium position, but was forced to settle for fourth.
The Koundouris brothers held off Gracie to come home in 10th overall and take the Am class victory, while the sole Trophy class car of Matt Stoupas and Gary Higgon came home 14th on the road.
GT World Challenge Australia returns on Sunday for the final one-hour race, set to commence at 2:10pm local time (2:40pm AEST).
Discussion about this post