There was just 0.6s between the Ford Mustang and BMW M4 G82 at the chequered flag. Meanwhile Zoe Woods and Nash Morris (Porsche 718 Cayman) held off the pace-setting McLaren Artura of Max Geoghegan and Tom Hayman for third.
“I drove the wheels off it, [I felt] like I was driving on the rims at the end,” Gray said.
Fifth place went to Summer Rintoule and Jarrod Hughes (Mercedes-AMG) who picked up five places after their stop. They finished in front of Jake Camilleri (Mercedes) to make it six Silver class teams in the top six places.
In seventh and first in Silver AM were Jason Gomersall and Aaron Seton (Mustang) ahead of Silver’s Nathan Morcom and Loclan Hennock (McLaren), and Tony Quinn and Hugo Allan (Porsche) second in Silver AM.
Dan Price and Blake Purdie (Audi R8) were 10th across the line but had a 5s penalty for speeding in pit lane. That dropped them to 13th behind Steve Jakic/Rylan Quinn (BMW) and Dean Campbell/Cameron Crick (Mustang), third and fourth in Silver AM.
It took until just a couple of laps from the finish for Shane Smollen (Porsche) to overcome his addition pit stop time, catch and pass AM leader Glen Walker (BMW) and win the class. The latter would ultimately finish third, passed by the Peter Lawrence/Jamie Augustine BMW before the end.
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Geoghegan was rapid from the outset and set a new lap record on Lap 2 as he forged out a 3.7s lead by Lap 5 when the safety car was deployed when the John Nikolovski Mercedes that hit wall out of Turn 7.
He led from Miedecke, Leahey and Camilleri. Behind them there was a good scrap going on between Price, Rintoule, Smollen, Callaghan, Woods and Hennock.
The safety car worked against Geoghegan who lost the margin he needed to negate the additional pit lane time ahead.
The race went green just before the pit window opened for the compulsory stops. Eleven pitted immediately and Miedecke went in one lap later. Geoghegan was the last to pit and Hayman resumed sixth.
Ahead of him, Gray had a 3.8s margin which he was able to increase to just under 5s. Burcher was second with Morris in front of Purdie and Camilleri. It was only in the last couple of laps that the lead gap came down and for Gray to cross the finish line first.
Monochrome GT4 Australia’s next round with the SRO Shannons SpeedSeries will be at Queensland Raceway from May 30 to June 1.
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