From pole position, Ojeda built a small advantage over his competitors while cars jockeyed for position behind.
Sixth place starter Alex Peroni and fifth-placed Jordan Love made the best starts of the lead group.
While the Love had nowhere to go and was forced into the grass, Peroni swept around the outside of Turn 1 and elevated his #268 Audi into the top three.
Title contender Jaxon Evans could race with some confidence knowing that regardless of the result, he and co-driver Elliott Schutte would keep the championship lead heading into the final round.
As the wind picked up, debris on the front straight threatened to get stuck in the various aerodynamic components of cars. Broc Feeney eventually picked one up in the grille of his #888 Audi. The crew removed it during the pit stop when he handed the reins to Brad Schumacher.
Peroni’s Team BRM Audi came to a halt at Turn 11 during the pit stop cycle with suspected electrical issues, and the young Tasmanian spent the better part of two laps trying to get the car restarted to no avail.
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Race control elected to not enforce additional pit stop times to yesterday’s winners for Race 2 due to the Race 1 results being finalised late amid technical checks.
That allowed yesterday’s podium finishers to not lose significant time during the pit stop cycle, with Schumacher managing to gain a position on Melbourne Performance Centre teammate Steve Brooks in the process.
Liam Talbot spun by himself on his out lap having taken over from Jamie Day, luckily not damaging the #1 Volante Rosso Aston Martin.
Peroni’s stricken Audi sat stationary until all cars had completed their compulsory pit stop, when race control decided to call the safety car on the stroke of halfway.
After the restart, a hard charging Talbot set about regaining the time lost due to the spin, coming into contact with and spinning the Jordan Love/Stephen Wyatt Ferrari, resulting in a 15 second penalty.
The team at Volante Rosso elected not to tell the reigning champion about his penalty in the closing laps, allowing him to make large time gains on the cars in front, catching the leaders with just a handful of laps remaining.
In the closing laps, Grant Donaldson spun his #111 Mercedes-AMG into the gravel at Turn 16, impacting the tyre barrier and beaching the car. Race control elected to keep the race under green flag conditions.
Lucchitti held sway at the head of the field and survived an attack from Schutte who in turn was under attack from Schumacher.
On the final lap, Schumacher divebombed Schutte into the first turn to seal second place. That gave Lucchitti a reprieve and he took the chequered flag for his first win of the year with Ojeda,
Renee Gracie came home in 7th position outright and added yet another class win to her tally, with enough points margin to seal the Am Class championship with one round to go.
GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS returns for their final round when the Shannons SpeedSeries heads across to Hampton Downs in New Zealand from Oct 31-November 2.
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