Jamec Pem Racing is eyeing off a historic title double as Jaxon Evans and Tim Miles take the Australian Endurance Championship lead into this weekend’s finale at Highlands Motorsport Park.
Evans/Miles hold a 76-point advantage over last start winners Peter Hackett and Dominic Storey, meaning that a podium finish would be enough to clinch the championship.
The crown would add to that which Geoff Emery won with Valvoline Jamec Pem in this year’s Australian GT Championship, when he overhauled previous points leader Liam Talbot in the final round of the season at Sandown.
The achievement would make the team the first to win multiple Australian GT titles in a season, but Miles insists that the focus is on the race itself rather than playing a championship game.
“I think as soon as you go to a race meeting and think ‘oh, we need to come third’, you’ll come fourth, so we’d rather go there with a focus on trying to win and see what comes out of it,” he said.
Evans agreed with his co-driver’s assessment of the situation.
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“We’re certainly in the box seat,” he admitted.
“We came to Hampton Downs treating it like the first of two rounds.
“Towards the end of the weekend we were thinking of the championship and just trying to keep a close eye on it, but at the same time you don’t want to drive around conservatively, you seem to make a few more mistakes when you’re not pushing to the limit.
“We’re racing drivers, we always want to win, so we always go out and give 100 percent, and Highlands will be no exception.”
Miles/Evans won May’s Phillip Island 500 and August’s Sydney Motorsport Park 501.
They placed runners-up in the Hampton Downs 500 just under a fortnight ago despite their Audi R8 having to be rebuild by Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia the night before.
Miles had aquaplaned off the track at the end of the back straight during qualifying, sustaining heavy front-end damage.
The Highlands 501 weekend begins with two practice sessions this Friday (November 10), with the race itself on Sunday.
Entry list: Round 4, Highlands 501
| # | Team | Car | Drivers |
| 6 | Timken Zagame Autosport | Lamborghini Huracan | Adrian Deitz/Cameron McConville |
| 7 | Darrell Lea | McLaren 650S GT3 | Tony Quinn/Andrew Waite |
| 8 | WM Waste Management | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Max Twigg/Tony D’Alberto |
| 19 | Hogs Breath Cage/Griffith Corporation | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Scott Hookey/Mark Griffith |
| 23 | JBS Australia | Lamborghini R-EX | Roger Lago/David Russell |
| 48 | M Motorsport Interlloy | Lamborghini R-EX | Justin McMillan/Glen Wood |
| 51 | AMAC Motorsport | Lamborghini Huracan | Andrew Macpherson/Brad Shiels |
| 58 | YNA Autosport/McElrea Racing | McLaren 650S GT3 | Fraser Ross/Alvaro Parente |
| 63 | Autex Eggleston Motorsport | Mercedes-AMG GT3 | Peter Hackett/Dominic Storey |
| 75 | Valvoline Jamec Pem Racing | Audi R8 LMS | Tim Miles/Jaxon Evans |
| 77 | Darrell Lea | McLaren 650S GT3 | Mike Whiddett/Shane van Gisbergen |
| 82 | Bolt Masters | Audi R8 LMS | Andrew Bagnell/Matt Halliday |
| 100 | BMW Team SRM | BMW M6 GT3 | Dylan O’Keeffe/Steve Richards |
| 911 | MEGA Racing | Porsche 911 GT3-R | Liam Talbot/John Martin |
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