The Erebus Motorsport GT team continued their domination of the Australian GT Championship at Phillip Island for round three of the series, with 20-year old Jack Le Brocq destroying the opposition in qualifying and race one today. Off pole position, the reigning national Formula Ford champion held a narrow early lead over veteran John Bowe, before charging away from the field as the fuel load lightened, finishing more than 30-seconds clear of Tony Quinn’s Aston Martin and Roger Lago’s Lamborghini Gallardo.
“This kid is as good as any of the imports Erebus put in the car last year,” John Bowe admitted after the opening race. “He’s the complete package, no question, I was very impressed.”
“It was pretty good,” Le Brocq grinned post-race, oblivious to his complete domination of the race. “It was a bit dicey to start with under a full 100+ litre fuel load and low tyre pressures, but once the tyres were at temperature, it was pretty comfortable.”
The day had started well for the Erebus Academy recruit after demolishing the qualifying lap record (set at 1:29.6148 last September by Maro Engel) to hold pole position for the opening one-hour race, resetting the bar to 1:26.5248.
Bowe qualified second in the Il Bello Rosso Ferrari, acknowledging the increased mid-corner speed of the recently upgraded 2013-spec 458 Italia. “It’s nicer to drive across a lap, and Pete’s [Edwards] finding it quicker too, so we’re in with a good race package.”
Quick off the line at the rolling start, Bowe tucked in under the rear wing of the Mercedes and stayed there for the first five laps before Le Brocq managed to pull clear with the tyres up to temperature.
Sadly for the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari team though, Bowe’s tyres came under increased ‘pressure’ forcing the former Bathurst champion to ease off the pace ahead of the mid-race pit-stops.
Behind the pair Tony Quinn was holding down a comfortable third place, as Justin McMillan, James Winslow (in Rod Salmon’s Audi) and Klark Quinn followed closely behind.
On the run to the line on lap three, the battle for fourth fell to three cars as McMillan suffered his second spin of the weekend, again coming onto the front straight – spinning off the circuit in a hail of tyre smoke and dust as Winslow and Quinn did what they could to avoid him.
At over 200km/h the 2013-spec Gallardo spun wildly down the grass, and looked to be devoid of damage before making a final backward push into the tyre wall forcing McMillan into retirement.
“I only have myself to blame,” he shrugged afterwards. “I was concentrating on the guys behind me when I should have been pressing on, and I ran wide on the exit of the final corner. I got away with it in practice, but now we’re facing an overnight rebuild to be ready for action again tomorrow.”
Fortunately damage was mostly superficial but the M Motorsport/GB Galvanizing team will effect repairs tonight and ensure the LP600 FL II will be on the grid for race two tomorrow.
Facing a nine second additional pitstop time penalty by virtue of his status as a professional driver, Le Brocq continued to charge all the way up to the 35-minute mark of the race when he finally pulled in. Bowe had come in previously and the team made a tyre pressure adjustment for Peter Edwards’ stint. That left Tony Quinn in the lead, before he too made his compulsory stop just prior to the 40-minute mark, rejoining comfortably second with Peter Edwards holding out Roger Lago and Klark Quinn for third.
With ten minutes to go Lago and Quinn moved past Edwards as Lago closed in on Tony Quinn, closing to within a second and a half before the flag.
Up front though Le Brocq was unchallenged, showing no drop-off in pace on his way to a new race lap record of 1:27.5058 on lap 37 of 39 to cross the line 35 seconds clear of Tony Quinn, with Lago close behind.
“I just couldn’t catch him in the end,” Lago admitted. “It was a tough race, I just wanted to stay ahead of Winslow and Klark early and take advantage of their ‘seeded’ driver penalties during the pitstop. It paid off.”
Peter Edwards brought the Maranello Ferrari home in fourth place, a lap up on the leading Audi of Andrew McInnes who took advantage of Le Brocq lapping the field to follow him past Rod Salmon in the Skwirk.com.au Audi R8 LMS ultra in the closing laps.
“I just couldn’t get past the Lamborghini,” Winslow admitted. “I tried everything, and used every trick I had up my sleeve maximising aero from Formula 3, but we just didn’t have the legs to get past Roger.”
Despite a late race puncture which cost him both track position and a lengthy pit stop, points leader Klark Quinn held on for seventh place, albeit three laps down, whilst Jack Perkins stormed through the bottom half of the field to cross the line eighth in Mark Griffith’s Ginetta GT4.
Jim Manolios maintained a consistent pace in the Pirelli/Trofeo Performance Corvette, just losing out to Perkins in the closing stages, to split the Ginettas with Michael Hovey tenth.
Touring Car Masters regular Keith Kassulke brought Darren Berry’s Ginetta home in eleventh place, with GT Challenge points leader Ben Foessell getting the better of a battle with his father George to win the category despite being overtaken twice by his father’s newer Type 997 Cup car. “Dad got around me twice during the race, but twice he ran off under brakes at Honda corner, so I’ll take that..” Ben celebrated afterwards.
Tony Martin bought his Ginetta home in 13th position after a strong opening stint by team-mate Lee Castle, with State Series regular Steve McLaughlan 14th in the ex-Greg Crick Dodge Viper after a lengthy mid-race pit stop.
“I had to pit earlier than planned because I felt what appeared to be a deflating tyre,” he explained post-race. “The tyre was fine, but I urged the boys to look closer because it just didn’t feel right, and sure enough a left rear wheel spacer had come loose, so once they fixed that I was away again, but we lost a handful of laps in the process.”
Despite his two offs, George Foessel claimed 15th position as the final classified finisher after Brendan Cook suffered a gear shift linkage failure early in the race.
“A bolt snapped and left me with no gears, which was a little testing,” he said. “It was frustrating because we’d only just upgraded the gearbox, so it shouldn’t have happened. We’ll fix it tonight and be back in the action tomorrow.”
Source : Australian GT