The 2014 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli title race looks like it will go down to the wire after the top two drivers in the championship both scored victories at Sandown during the first two of three 40-minute races schedule for the weekend. Tony Quinn emerged as the race winner in race one, whilst points leader Richard Muscat claimed race two in another hectic day of competition for the penultimate round of the championship.
Tony Quinn holds on in race one.
After the dramas that unfolded for the Erebus Motorsport GT driver during opening practice – something which put points leader Richard Muscat and his team behind the eight-ball ahead of qualifying – the young Victorian was keen to race away from the field in the first 40-minute race and open up an unassailable lead ahead of the compulsory pit stops [CPS].
Early in the race it looked like he would do it too, putting in a string of laps in the 1:09s to open up a strong lead over the field as Tony Quinn worked his way past Justin McMillan in the pole-sitting Interlloy Lamborghini to set off in pursuit of the Mercedes driver.
By the time Muscat hit the pits in the closing stages of the CPS window, his lead had dropped to just 13-seconds, and with a 20-second longer stop than Quinn (by virtue of his ‘Masters’ driver grading and front row start), the Erebus driver looked certain to lose the lead.
The VIP Petfoods team turned the Quinn car around right on time, the Aston Martin leaving the pits eight seconds clear of Muscat who was quickly on his tail, but as the race lead looked almost certain to change, drama struck for Andrew Macpherson’s Porsche GT3-R at turn four. Running just off the tail of the top ten, Macpherson had a spin on the exit after running wide on the ripple strip, forcing the IMAK Porsche into a spin and hard into the armco safety fence.
That stopped him broadside across the circuit on the exit of a relatively blind left-hander, ultimately calling the safety car into the equation, however officials decided to declare the race early instead as a recovery from that part of the circuit would have blocked the track.
That allowed Quinn to claim victory by the smallest of margins, with David Russell doing an outstanding job in the McMillan Lamborghini to claim third, a result which could be attributed to the newly found pace of the car’s owner.
“I’m pretty happy with that,” McMillan beamed. “I managed to take more than a second off my best lap time from the round here in March, and was able to do it consistently, so I’m hoping this will become a regular thing for us in future.”
“I could see him coming, and he was quick,” Tony Quinn reflected post-race on the coming assault from Muscat. “We had some good pace too, and I could punch out 1:09s when the traffic was good, but he’s certainly quick through the back-markers.”
Fourth overall was John Morriss in his ‘new’ Porsche GT3-R, the car that claimed the 2013 GT Asia Series crown, whilst fifth was the Trophy Class Equity-One Audi R8 of Dean Koutsoumidis and James Winslow. Like McMillan, Koutsoumidis too was blisteringly quick, having shaved more than a second off his previous best, something he’d shown in practice where he was comfortably amongst the top five lap times.. outright!
“I’m constantly trying to find ways to improve my performance, and with James’ help, I’m starting to unlock the secrets, and the results are coming as a consequence. I’m rapt,” he beamed.
John Bowe and Peter Edwards claimed seventh, the Bathurst 12-Hour winners perhaps a little off their true form with Edwards having returned from an overseas business trip the day before opening practice, whilst Trophy Class points leaders Rod Salmon and Nathan Antunes were eighth ahead of stablemate Steve McLaughlan in his recently upgraded Championship Class Audi R8 LMS ultra.
Ben Foessel claimed the Challenge class win after an ongoing sequence of spins dropped title rivals Brendan Cook and Matt Kingsley down the order, the team revealing afterwards an unusual issue.
“I’d had about four spins for the weekend, including a lurid spin through the fast first turn in that race, and I spent the next three laps chastising myself over it,” Cook admitted. “But then Matty [Kingsley] got in, and he did the same thing, so we checked the data and discovered that the brake bias was changing almost corner by corner.”
The data backed up Cook’s comments, showing full front bias changing to full rear bias in the space of two corners.. “It was a real lottery in the end, we didn’t know what the hell was going to happen corner to corner,” Cook lamented..
In GT Sports, points leader and reigning champion Mark Griffith took the victory over Ginetta team-mate Tony Martin who had been the faster of the two cars all weekend, Martin admitting to an unusual issue post-race.
“We have a minor oil issue somewhere which we can’t find. That seems to have cost us a little bit in race one, so the team will do what they can to fix it ahead of race two. It’s not leaking, but there’s a fine mist around the gearbox, so something’s not 100%,” he shrugged.
Muscat fights back in race two
Off the front row for the second 40-minute race, Tony Quinn and Richard Muscat had a drag race off the rolling start on the run down to turn one, Quinn getting the better of the challenge to lead David Russell in the Interlloy Lamborghini through to the back straight. Russell quickly worked his way past Quinn for the lead, and was soon pursued by Muscat, dropping the race one winner back to third.
Behind them Steve McLaughlan’s frustrating weekend became even more challenging after heavy contact from behind by the Supaloc Ford GT of Kevin Weeks as the pack sorted themselves out through turns two and three, the impact ultimately affecting both cars and forcing the Audi driver’s retirement with bent steering.
“It’s been a very frustrating weekend so far,” the reigning Trophy Class champion lamented. “I’m still coming to terms with this ‘new’ ultra package, which at Sandown is down a good 25 horsepower on the ‘older’ LMS cars, so the track doesn’t suit us with the two long straights, but it also doesn’t help to be involved in contact on the opening lap!”
Whilst the pack settled into a rhythm, the leaders set about breaking Muscat’s opening race lap record [1:09.1823], trading a new lap record with every passing lap – first Russell and then Muscat – as they broke away from Tony Quinn and the chasing pack.
In the end it was top-qualifier Russell in the Interlloy Lamborghini who prevailed, resetting the mark to an impressive 1:08.9452 on lap 16 as he tried desperately to break free of the Erebus Mercedes.
As the laps wound down to his compulsory pit stop [CPS], Russell became victim of his own pace, running across one too many ripple strip which ultimately deflated the right rear tyre just as he passed the pit entry, forcing the Nissan V8 Supercar regular to drive a complete revolution of the circuit before handing the car over to Justin McMillan.
John Morriss’ impressive run continued in the GT3 Factory Porsche GT3-R, moving once more into the top four, before the battling MPC Audis of Nathan Antunes and James Winslow made their way through ahead of the CPS, whilst impressive series rookie Ryan Millier also moved inside the top five ahead of his stop in the Trofeo Motorsport Ferrari.
Muscat – like Tony Quinn – waited until the dying stages of the pit stop window to make his CPS, the points leader ultimately re-emerging well clear of the VIP Petfoods Aston Martin to assume a lead he would hold to the flag, crossing the line 20 seconds clear of Quinn, with John Bowe and Peter Edwards third in the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 458.
John Morriss recovered to claim fourth, with Dean Koutsoumidis and James Winslow recording their second Trophy Class win of the day over title rivals Rod Salmon and Nathan Antunes with fifth and sixth outright.
Ross Lilley’s strong opening race result was reflected once again in his race two performance, the Koala Furniture Gallardo FL2 the first car a lap down in seventh ahead of the recovering Justin McMillan who stuck his nose under Tony Quinn’s rear wing for the bulk of the session, continuing his strong run for eighth.
Jim Manolios was next across the line in the Trofeo Motorsport Ferrari, the Pirelli team boss doing a brilliant job to take more than a second off his previous best at Sandown, with Michael Hovey and rising star Matt Campbell classified tenth.
Challenge class points leader Ben Foessel once again grabbed the win over Brendan Cook and Matt Kingsley who were once more plagued by a brake bias issue, with more lurid spins through turn one, whilst Tony Martin got the better of Mark Griffith in the battle between the two Ginetta G50 GT4s.
Sadly for Ockert Fourie and John Magro, they suffered their second DNF of the day on lap seven with a deflating left front tyre, whilst Simon Ellingham had a spin on the final lap on the exit of turn four, clipping the barrier in a similar incident to that which claimed Andrew Macpherson in the opening race.
The teams now move on to the final race of the Sandown event, with one more 40-minute race scheduled for 11:05am on Sunday, 14 September.
The fifth round of the Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli will be televised on Channel 7 in the coming weeks (time to be advised).
SCHEDULE (AEST)
Sunday, 14 September
Race #3 – 11:05am (40-minutes)
AUSTRALIAN GT AND SANDOWN PARK
The Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli has already competed at Melbourne’s Sandown Park during the opening round of the season back in late March. On that occasion AGT rookie Richard Muscat dominated the event, winning both 60-minute races – the first from rear of field after failing to record a time in qualifying.
During the event reigning Bathurst 1000 champion Steve Richards set pole in the M-Motorsport Lamborghini Gallardo (1:09.5087), whilst Richard Muscat established a new race lap record during race two – 1:09.5639.
The Australian GT Championship had competed at Sandown on four prior occasions; 2007 (won by Allan Simonsen/Tim Leahey – Ferrari 430), 2008 (Allan Simonsen/Nick O’Halloran – Ferrari 430), 2011 (Tony Quinn – Mosler) and 2011 (Greg Crick – Dodge Viper).
WHERE TO WATCH..
Keep track of round five of the Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli from Sandown via the AGT website – www.australiangt.com.au and via Facebook; AustralianGT
Tickets are available through Ticketek via; premier.ticketek.com.au
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Rnd#5 – 2014 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli
Sandown Park Raceway, Melbourne – Race#1 (40-minutes) (13 September)
1. Tony Quinn (GT – Aston Martin Vantage GT3) – 26-laps
2. Richard Muscat (GT – Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3)
3. Justin McMillan/David Russell (GT – Gallardo FL2 GT3)
4. John Morriss (GT – Porsche GT3-R)
5. Ross Lilley (GT – Gallardo FL2 GT3)
6. Dean Koutsoumidis/James Winslow (GTT – Audi R8 LMS GT3)
7. John Bowe/Peter Edwards (GT – Ferrari 458 Italia GT3)
8. Rod Salmon/Nathan Antunes (GTT – Audi R8 LMS GT3)
9. Steve McLaughlan (GT – Audi R8 LMS GT3 ultra)
10. Jan Jinadasa/Daniel Gaunt (GTT – Lamborghini Gallardo LP520) – 25-laps
11. Michael Hovey/Matt Campbell (GTT – Porsche GT3 Cup)
12. Jim Manolios/Ryan Millier (GT – Ferrari 458 Italia GT3)
13. Kevin Weeks (GTT – Ford GT)
14. Ben Foessel (GTC – Porsche GT3 Cup)
15. Simon Ellingham (GTT – Porsche Type 997 GT3 Cup)
16. Brendan Cook/Matt Kingsley (GTC – Porsche GT3 Cup)
17. Mark Griffith (GTS – Ginetta G50 GT4) – 23-laps
18. Tony Martin (GTS – Ginetta G50 GT4)
DNF. Andrew Macpherson (GT – Porsche 997 GT3-R) – 23-laps
DNF. Ockert Fourie/John Magro (GTT – Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 21-laps
DNF. Indiran Padayachee (GTC – Porsche GT3 Cup) – 20-laps
DNS. Klark Quinn (GT – McLaren MP4-12C)
Rnd#5 – 2014 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli
Sandown Park Raceway, Melbourne – Race#2 (40-minutes) (13 September)
1. Richard Muscat (GT – Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3) – 32-laps
2. Tony Quinn (GT – Aston Martin Vantage GT3)
3. John Bowe/Peter Edwards (GT – Ferrari 458 Italia GT3)
4. John Morriss (GT – Porsche GT3-R)
5. Dean Koutsoumidis/James Winslow (GTT – Audi R8 LMS GT3)
6. Rod Salmon/Nathan Antunes (GTT – Audi R8 LMS GT3)
7. Ross Lilley (GT – Gallardo FL2 GT3) – 31-laps
8. Justin McMillan/David Russell (GT – Gallardo FL2 GT3)
9. Jim Manolios/Ryan Millier (GT – Ferrari 458 Italia GT3)
10. Michael Hovey/Matt Campbell (GTT – Porsche GT3 Cup)
11. Ben Foessel (GTC – Porsche GT3 Cup)
12. Kevin Weeks (GTT – Ford GT) – 30-laps
13. Brendan Cook/Matt Kingsley (GTC – Porsche GT3 Cup)
14. Tony Martin (GTS – Ginetta G50 GT4) – 29-laps
15. Mark Griffith (GTS – Ginetta G50 GT4) – 28-laps
16. Jan Jinadasa/Daniel Gaunt (GTT – Lamborghini Gallardo LP520) – 27-laps
DNF. Simon Ellingham (GTT – Porsche Type 997 GT3 Cup) – 30-laps
DNF. Steve McLaughlan (GT – Audi R8 LMS GT3 ultra) – 11-laps
DNF. Ockert Fourie/John Magro (GTT – Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 7-laps
DNS. Andrew Macpherson (GT – Porsche 997 GT3-R)
DNS. Indiran Padayachee (GTC – Porsche GT3 Cup)