The #35 Ford Mustang dominated the first leg of the race before losing out in the pit stops, forcing Miedecke to make a move on the restart on BMW M4 driver Tim Leahey for the win.

“That was a good one,” said Miedecke.

“I knew on that restart I had to act pretty quickly on Tim, but the car was great. The Miedecke Motorsport team did a great job with the Mustang. It was a pleasure to drive.

“I was slowing down there towards the end just to be a little cautious.

“To be honest, that whole thing was set up by Rylan. What a fantastic first stint. He put his head down and didn’t make any mistakes.

“We ran him long because he was just so speedy. That’s what gave us the track position to offset that penalty.

“Really, really happy with his performance and showing everyone why he’s the next best thing all over again.”

After taking pole position earlier in the day, Gray led Ryder Quinn in the #3 Toyota Supra into the first turn.

There was carnage just minutes into the race when Quinn spun out at the Turn 3 chicane after contact with the #210 Porsche Cayman of Nash Morris.

Minutes later, fifth place Morris spun at Turn 4 thanks to contact with the #27 Ford Mustang of Aaron Cameron. Both incidents went unpunished.

At the head of the field, Gray stepped out his lead to nearly 10 seconds before the pit stop sequence. However, the gap to second began to close as the mid-race driver swap approached.

Gray pitted and handed the #35 Ford Mustang over to Miedecke but lost out to Tim Leahey in the #22 BMW M4 he shared with Cody Burcher.

In the midst of the pit stops, the #20 Jamie Arratoon Mercedes-AMG spun at Dandenong Road.

Despite inclement weather, Arratoon got his car out of the gravel. However, the #17 Bailey Love/Rob Love Mercedes-AMG wasn’t so lucky. His car got bogged in the gravel trap and the Safety Car was called.

Even with yellow flags out, Glenn Walker in the #14 BMW M4 drove into the back of the #1 Porsche driven by Shane Smollen.

The Safety Car was drawn with 23 minutes to go and went green with eight minutes remaining.

Leahey led Miedecke, who took the lead into Turn 1. Behind them, Max Geoghegan in the #25 McLaren Artura with Tom Hayman surged from the back end of the top 10.

By the end of the restart lap, Geoghegan passed Summer Rintoule in the #87 Mercedes-AMG with Jarrod Hughes for third.

It wasn’t long before Geoghegan had Leahey in his sights. With just five minutes to go, the McLaren dived to the inside of the BMW at Turn 1 and the pair made contact. Leahey spun and Geoghegan was given a 15-second penalty for the collision.

At the head of the field, Miedecke cleared out to a 10-second lead. Rintoule benefitted from the clash between Geoghegan and Leahey, claiming second with Hughes. Tim Berryman was the quiet achiever in third with Daniel Frougas in their Silver-Am class #9 Toyota Supra. After the penalty, Geoghegan and Hayman were fourth while Jake Camilleri finished fifth.

The second Monochrome GT4 Australia race at Sandown takes place at 11:30am AEST on Sunday, July 27.