Having started from pole position, the pair both produced solid stints behind the wheel of the Team MPC Audi R8 LMS EVO II to score an 11-second victory over Tigani Motorsport’s Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti.
Claiming victory in the Am Cup was Renee Gracie after the Queenslander enjoyed an intense battle with her class rivals, while Paul Stokell played a significant role in giving Team MPC a clean sweep of class wins in the race after he and Gary Higgon comfortably secured the Trophy Class victory in their KFC Audi R8 LMS.
Following epic qualifying sessions earlier on Saturday, the race got off to an incredibly dramatic start as contact between Team BRM’s Mark Rosser, Team MPC’s Tim Miles and Arise Racing GT’s Elliott Schutte sent the former two spinning before the field had even reached the opening corner.
Bringing out the BMW Safety Car, Rosser was able to get his Audi RS LMS EVO II back out on track, but it was race over for the Dayle ITM / Team MPC Audi of Miles and Brendon Leitch.
Taking advantage of the incident was Sergio Pires in the Geyer Valmont Racing/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, who jumped up to second ahead of Schutte, while Volante Rosso’s Liam Talbot eventually got the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 past the Ferrari once the BMW Safety Car intervention concluded.
Schumacher went on to build his lead at the front of the field as the laps continued, while Rosser only lasted 10 laps before being brought back into the pits and eventually retiring.
The race then settled for the next stint of the race until the pit stops, when the drama picked up again.
The Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT of Schutte and Jaxon Evans was again in the thick of the drama as Schutte overshot the stop and had to be pushed back before later slapped with a drive-through penalty for not being stationary in his pit box for long enough.
Having worked their way into second after starting eighth, the Volante Rosso Aston Martin’s hard work was undone when they were given a drive-through penalty for a pit stop breach, putting them back.
With Feeney in the car after a seamless pit stop, the Queenslander went on to build a solid lead ahead of the pack, while Jayden Ojeda eventually worked his way into second place after Fraser and Evans were forced back into the pits.
The New South Welshman went on to replace his Tigani Motorsport stablemate George King, who was having issues in the Geyer Valmont Racing Mercedes, before chasing down Feeney, who had charged out to a big lead.
Ojeda eventually cut the buffer down to within 11 seconds, while the pair continued to build their gap to the rest of the field. Evans had recovered superbly to get the Ferrari back into podium position, having made it past Fraser as a result of the pit stop and then the limping King.
Once in third, the top three didn’t change as Feeney led Ojeda and Evans across the finish line.
As for the Am Cup, while Gracie added yet another victory to her name, she was made to work for it as she was locked in a big battle with the #111 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Grant Donaldson and Darren Currie.
The two cars exchanged the lead multiple times for a few laps before Gracie eventually took command and painted her lead for the rest of the race.
Like the Am class, the Trophy Class saw an entertaining battle unfold between the Porsche 911 GT3-R (991) of Luke Youlden and Nathan Halstead and the Audi of Stokell and Higgon.
While the Porsche worked its way in front on the opening lap of the race, it was the Audi of Higgon and Stokell who would be victorious as they went in front after the pit stop window and never looked back.
The GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS continues tomorrow with Race 2 of EVENTelec GT Festival Queensland at 12:50pm AEST.
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