He wasn’t first across the line, but Tony Quinn won an abbreviated Fight in the Night race for Monochrome GT4 Australia while Iain Sherrin was the victor in Mobil 1 Australian Production Cars at Queensland Raceway on Saturday night.
Lachlan Mineeff, who jumped in Shane Smollen’s Porsche Cayman for the second leg, was first to the finish, 2.9s ahead of the Quinn Porsche. However, received a post-race 5s penalty for not lining up correctly in the pit box at the start.
The race was scheduled to be a two-hour event for the combined categories. But, a serious accident in the preceding Porsche event, delayed the start of the night race by 45mins, leaving the race to only and run for 70mins.
Third place went to Mark Griffith and Nash Morris (GT4 Mercedes AMG), while Karl Begg (GT4 McLaren 570S) and the Steve Jukes/Justin Anthony (GT4 BMW M82 M4) were the next two across the line. They were nose-to-tail, but the gap went out as the BMW pair received a similar 5s penalty.
Sixth and first place in APC was not determined until just two laps from the finish when Iain Sherrin (Class X BMW M4) overtook Lindsay Kearns (Class A2 Ford Mustang) for the win.
Chris Pappas and Cameron McLeod steered their McLaren from the back of the field to eighth ahead of APC’s Tim Leahy (M4), Ben Gersekowski (Class B2 BMW E92 M3) and Beric Lynton (M4).
Grant Sherrin was forced to pit his BMW for a second stop while fifth outright and leading APC, due to his first stop taken outside of the CPS window. He finished ahead of Robert Gooley (M4), Dean Campbell/Cameron Crick (A1 Mitsubishi EVO X) and Andrew Miedecke (Mustang), who also made two stops.
Next was Jake Camilleri (Mazda 3 MPS), who took out Class C, while Scott Turner (Class B1 BMW 135i), Phil Alexander (Class D Nissan Pulsar) and Shane Fowler (Class E Mazda 3 SP23) were the other notable winners.
There were two Safety Cars, the first for Garry Beggs (HSV Clubsport with suspension damage) and Michael Rowell, whose Mustang was towed to the pits. Others not going the distance included Liam Moyse (Toyota 86, blown head gasket), Tony Levitt Mercedes C63 AMG, power steering belt), Allan Jarvis (VW Polo GTi, exploded brake rotor), and Chris Holdt (Holden Commodore VZ).
Race three of the combined categories will conclude on Sunday with an hour-long race at 10.05 am.