Mark Eddy has won the CAMS Tourist Trophy by finishing second to Melbourne Performance Centre team-mate Peter Hackett in Race 2 at Phillip Island.
The result marks Eddy’s first round win in the Vodka O Australian GT Championship since debuting his Audi R8 LMS at the beginning of the 2010 season.
The Penfold Audi Sport driver set-up his round victory by taking out pole position yesterday and Race 1 this morning.
CLICK HERE for Speedcafe.com’s Race 1 report
Hackett cruised to victory in Race 2, with his Mercedes AMG SLS taking the flag over 17s ahead of Eddy, who overcame the Dodge Viper of Greg Crick with 10 of the 60 minutes remaining.
Ash Samadi (Mosler MT900R), Ian Palmer (Dodge Viper) and Mark Seamons (Lamborghini Gallardo) rounded out the top six.
Mistakes from Tony Quinn (Aston Martin DBRS9) and Eddy in the early laps left Hackett and Crick to wage a mighty war for the lead before the pitstops began.
The duo swapped the top spot four times before Crick pitted at the 30 minute mark, leaving Hackett to attack alone at the front.
Having made his compulsory 75s stop close to the end of the pit window, Hackett emerged with a comfortable 13s lead over Crick, with a fellow late-stopping Eddy a further seven seconds in arrears.
The Audi driver eventually took Crick for second at MG Corner to complete an outstanding weekend for the 2008 Australian GT Champion.
“Our tyres were probably a bit off in that second race because we used them up in the first one,” Eddy told Speedcafe.com after the race.
“I was being a bit cautious in the opening laps, the tyres came up a bit slowly in my car, but by the middle of the race it was very good.
“The rears held on quite well – I couldn’t get Hackett but we were able to do consistent lap times until the end and we’ve come home with the (overall) chocolates.
“Really for us it’s about the championship, so I was racing Crick and Quinny (Klark Quinn) rather than Hackett, and that’s really worked out well for us.”
Quinn’s off at Turn 4 on the opening lap had left the VIP Petfoods entry 30s behind the leaders. The #7 entry would eventually retire from the race after slowing inside the final 20 minutes with a differential issue.
There was trouble also for the Kevin Weeks/Josh Hunt Lamborghini Gallardo – the Supaloc-backed car running third in the opening laps before a blown right-rear tyre curtailed their run. The duo were later disqualified for breaching the category’s tyre warming regulations.
Eddy moves to the head of the championship standings with two rounds remaining, 18 points ahead of Crick and 47 ahead of erstwhile leader Klark Quinn.
