Richard Muscat charged from the rear of the grid to win the final race of Round Four of the Australian GT Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Starting second-last on the 23-car grid after yesterday’s DNF, Muscat clawed his way back inside the top 10 inside the opening lap, before gradually climbing to second as the compulsory pit stops began.
The Erebus Academy driver emerged in the same position after the field had completed their stops, over eight seconds in arrears of Race 1 winner Tony Quinn due to his parity-mandated longer hold.
Muscat then made incredibly light work of the Aston Martin driver over the final third of the 60 minute race, passing Quinn barely more than three laps later and romping home to a 26.6s victory in 38 laps.
Such was Muscat’s dominance that the Wilson Security SLS AMG’s fastest lap was a 1:28-flat, some 1.9s better than Steven Richards’ next-best personal benchmark.
Klark Quinn again joined his father on the podium, overhauling the Justin McMillan/Richards Lamborghini during the course of the pit stops, while John Bowe brought the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari back up to fourth on the final lap, car owner Peter Edwards having handed over car #88 while buried in the mid-pack.
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McMillan was fifth after Richards had lead prior to pitting, with the top ten filled out by Trophy Class winners Dean Koutsoumidis/James Winslow, Steven McLaughlan/Warren Luff, Rod Salmon/Nathan Antunes, Andrew Macpherson, and Adrian Deitz/Josh Hunt.
Tony Alford was cleared of serious injury overnight after a major incident during Race 1, suffering heavy soreness but no broken bones after his Lotus turned hard left into a concrete wall as a result of contact with another competitor.
Muscat continues to lead the GT Championship class, 43 points ahead of Tony Quinn, whose strong showing relegated Bowe to third in the standings. Salmon’s GT Trophy class lead over Koutsoumidis/Winslow is unchanged at 62 points.
The Australian GT Championship returns to Sandown Motor Raceway for Round Five from September 12-14
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