Schutte led the Shannons SpeedSeries event from the outset. He handed the Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 to Evans who had to hold off a charging Jayden Ojeda over the final laps.

Ojeda took over the Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO from Paul Lucchitti and resumed the race seventh.

Drama befell the first one-hour race before it started for the Declan Fraser/Liam Talbot Volante Rosso Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage. It was excluded from both qualifying sessions with a fuel capacity issue and would have to start both races from the rear of the grid.

The Axle Donaldson/Darren Currie Mercedes was another with issues. It was a non-starter due to gearbox maladies.

Third place looked set to go to Brad Schumacher and Broc Feeney until the final lap when a rear puncture saw the latter limp the Team MPC Audi  to the finish ninth.

That meant that Alex Peroni and Mark Rosser in the Team BRM-run Audi R8 would cross the line third, but they had a penalty hanging over them for an unsafe release after making contact with the Sergio Pires/George King Mercedes in the pits. Subsequently, 15 seconds were added to their race time, putting them seventh.

Third went to Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles in their Melbourne Performance Centre Audi, who just held off Dorian Boccolacci in the EMA Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R he shared with Shane Smollen.

Fraser and Talbot finished the race fifth and ahead of the second Arise Racing Ferrari 296 piloted by Jordan Love and Stephen Wyatt.

King and Pires were next in front of Tony D’Alberto and Adrian Dietz in their Lamborghini Huracan, another to incur a 15-second post-race penalty and relegate them to 11th.

Behind Feeney and Schumacher in 10th were Mercedes duo Ben Schoots and Shane Woodman who took out the Am class ahead of Renee Gracie in another Melbourne Performance Centre Audi. She was primed to win the class until a drive-through penalty for a pitstop infringement.

Ryan Wood and Steve Brooks finished 13th after the latter lost a couple of laps when the Audi was beached at the Southern Loop. Both the Mercedes of Theo and James Koundouris, and Paul and Ant Pedersen were non-finishers.

The second one-hour race of GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS is scheduled to begin at 1:45pm AEST on Sunday and will be livestreamed on 7plus Sport and 7Mate.