Supercars stars headline ‘most competitive GT field ever’ for Phillip Island

Supercars race winners Chaz Mostert and Will Brown are set to compete alongside Jaxon Evans, while Grove Racing bosses Stephen and Brenton are also among the starters this weekend.

There’s an international flavour too, with ex-FIA Formula 3 racer turned European Le Mans and GT World Challenge Europe racer Alex Peroni in the field, as is New Zealand ace Brendon Leitch.

“There’s been great support from the teams and drivers for SRO Australia’s first season at the helm of Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS,” said Ben McMellan, CEO of SRO Australia, which has taken over the running of the competition this year.

“It’s the most competitive field that we have seen, with the most outright contenders that have entered a Fanatec GT season. It’s a very exciting line-up of cars and stars.

“We have a batch of new cars that have arrived, and the Ferraris are a big addition to the field. The Ferrari brand is highly prestigious all around the world, so that makes it a real positive for our local fans.

“It’s going to be very hard to pick a winner. There’s several entries in both Pro-Am and Am that have the ability to win their class.

“It’s by far the most competitive field we’ve ever seen in Australia.”

Bathurst 1000 winner Mostert will share a Ferrari 296 GT3 with Liam Talbot as part of a nine-car Pro-Am field representing three different marques.

The Groves will pilot one of the three Mercedes-AMG GT3s entered, with Australian Endurance Championship winner Peter Hackett sharing duties with Declan Fraser for Triple Eight Racing Engineering in another.

Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti complete the pairings for the German marque.

Brad Jones Racing’s new recruit Evans will share a Ferrari 296 GT3 with Elliott Schuutte in what is a two-car attack with the Talbot/Mostert entry from Arise Racing.

A quartet of Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2s complete the Pro-Am class, with Brown sharing with Brad Schumacher, Peroni with Mark Rosser, Leitch with Tim Miles, and Renee Gracie with Paul Stokell.

The seven-strong Am class consists of Mercedes and Audis; Marc Cini, Ash Samadi, and Macel Zalloua/Sergio Pires representing the four-ringed brand.

In the four Mercedes are Shane Woodman and Ben Schoots, Tony Bates, Michael Shergold and Garth Walden, and the Koundouris brothers.

Michael Bailey rounds out the field in his Trophy class Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

The Phillip Island weekend begins with opening practice at 09:45 AEST on Friday, followed by a second session at 13:30.

Qualifying will continue to be split into two 20-minute sections to decide grids for each race, starting at 10:35, with the second at 11:00.

Race 1 begins at 13:00 on Saturday afternoon, while Sunday’s second event starts at 14:55.

Each qualifying and race session will be featured live on 7plus, while both races will be simulcast on 7plus and 7mate (check your local guides).

Phillip Island entry list