Tony Quinn won his second race in two days to claim victory in the penultimate round of the 2014 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli at Melbourne’s Sandown Park, the VIP Petfoods Aston Martin driver crossing the line just a car length clear of points leader Richard Muscat to force the title decider at Quinn’s ‘home’ round at Highlands Motorsport Park in New Zealand in November.
With the two title contenders starting the final 40-minute race from the front row, the focus was always going to be on who would take the lead on the run through turn one.
In the end it was Muscat who stole the position under brakes to lead the field through the opening lap after trying to squeeze the big Aston as they crossed the line for the rolling start. Quinn was having none of it though and showed he was prepared to fight over real estate to hold his ground, but the Mercedes claimed the prize as Muscat set about establishing a strong lead ahead of the compulsory pit stops [CPS].
Behind them there was a mid pack scuffle into turn one which saw plenty of tyre smoke from locked brakes and a few off-track excursions, but nothing too serious as the field settled into its rhythm.
Muscat was clearly intent on breaking free of Quinn to take a strong lead into the CPS, but Quinn wan’t going to let him get away, joining Muscat in the 1:09s whilst behind them Peter Edwards (Ferrari), John Morriss (Porsche) and Justin McMillan (Lamborghini) battled with the Trophy Class Audis of Koutsoumidis and Salmon.
Ultimately Muscat grabbed an eight second lead ahead of the pit stop window opening, with Quinn losing ground in traffic, but the lead wasn’t quite enough to see the Mercedes return to the front by the time Quinn had completed his compulsory stop.
That left Quinn in front with 12-minutes to go, the Aston Martin pilot staying ahead of Muscat for a handful of laps before the Mercedes driver locked onto his tail, but catching the big black and yellow VIP Petfoods Aston was one thing.. taking him for position was another! Despite his best efforts Muscat was unable to effect a pass ahead of the chequered flag handing Quinn his second win of the weekend, and his third in the last five races..
“I just tried to set a steady pace and keep Richard within sight,” Quinn said post-race. “I knew that if I stayed close, we could come out ahead of him after the stop and then it was just a matter of hanging on until the flag. I didn’t expect to see the flag come a lap early, but that’s what happens with these time sensitive races on the V8 supercar program – that’s the way it goes.”
Third across the line – and overall for the round – was David Russell in the top qualifying Interlloy Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 GT3 of Justin McMillan, a result that was set up by the car owner who admitted he’d enjoyed a huge improvement since the series last visited the Melbourne venue back in March.
“This has been a great weekend for the M-Motorsport team,” McMillan admitted. “Personally I’ve gained about 1.2 seconds on my personal best around here, and felt great running with the leaders. Dave did a fantastic job in Richos [Steve Richards] absence, and showed that we’re well and truly capable of running at the front.”
Peter Edwards and John Bowe claimed fourth in the final race in the Il Bello Rosso Ferrari 458 Italia after Bowe ultimately got the better of a quite lengthy battle with John Morriss in the Porsche GT3-R, the series rookie doing a fantastic job to claim fourth overall for the weekend.
Sixth was Ross Lilley in the sister car to the McMillan Lamborghini, the Koala Furniture boss recovering strongly from his off during the opening lap of practice which destroyed the front splitter of his pristine Gallardo, from that point on it was all smiles as the former GT race winner finished all three races inside the top ten.
Seventh and the Trophy Class round winner was Dean Koutsoumidis and James Winslow in the Equity-One Motorsport Audi R8 LMS, the local team scoring three race wins to close to within 32-points of team-mate Rod Salmon in the Skwirk.com.au Audi.
Salmon got the better of Koutsoumidis off the start thanks to the fracas at turn one on the opening lap, however the former Trophy class champion [2012] managed to take the class lead ahead of the CPS where he handed the car to Winslow who went on to complete the team’s whitewash of the round.
“This weekend had everything,” Koutsoumidis admitted. “We had the pace from Friday, and it was nice to be on pole and then win three races to take maximum points. We’ve just got to keep fighting all the way to New Zealand now. We’ve recovered some ground on Rod and Nathan [Antunes], and are within striking range, so we’ll be giving it our best shot.”
In the end the two Audis were split by the Supaloc Ford GT of Kevin Weeks who finally overcame a handling issue to claim a strong top ten finish, whilst tenth was the impressive Trofeo Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia of Jim Manolios and Ryan Millier which prevailed despite high speed contact with the Fourie Audi at the top of the circuit, and the Macpherson Porsche at Dandenong Road corner to complete a great return to form for the series sponsor.
Reigning Trophy Class champion Steve McLaughlan enjoyed a relatively trouble-free but lonely run to eleventh in the Championship Class Audi R8 LMS ultra, the local driver admitting that the restricted performance of the newer model just wasn’t suited to the Sandown circuit with it’s two long straights.
Andrew Macpherson was back in the action after his solid contact with the turn four armco during race one yesterday, the team sourcing parts overnight to repair the AMAC Motorsport Porsche GT3-R, whilst Michael Hovey and young Matt Campbell claimed 13th in the Triffid Porsche 997 Cup Car, in the process taking third overall in Trophy Class.
Like Macpherson, Indiran Padayachee was back for race three having sourced a replacement gearbox for his Type 997 Cup Car, his battle with New Zealander Simon Ellingham one of the highlights of Trophy Class.
Ben Foessel claimed the round win once more in Challenge Class, the reigning champion and points leader extended his advantage over the Brendan Cook/Matt Kingsley combination despite following the #25 Walz Group Porsche through much of each race prior to the ongoing brake bias issues which would ultimately spin them out of the class lead. Foessel though was not without his own issues, losing the clutch after his CPS..
“We had a great weekend, but it wasn’t without its challenges,” Foessel admitted. “I knew it would be hard to compete against Matt and Brendan here, but we just concentrated on what we had to do, and they also struck problems, so we’ll take that, and take the fight to them at Highlands for the final round.”
In GT Sports, Tony Martin claimed his first ever round win in the TM Motorsports Ginetta G50, finally out-scoring title rival Mark Griffith however Griffith may have lost the battle, but he won the war, claiming back-to-back championship crowns, his 112 point series lead enough to take the title with one round remaining.
“It was another great round, and I’d like to thank the outright cars for giving us plenty of racing room this time,” Griffith quipped in reference to the difficult time the GT4 cars had endured back in March. “We didn’t quite have the pace to match Tony this time around, but are overjoyed to have claimed back-to-back titles which will give us the chance to debut our new car at Highlands and start preparing for a new challenge in the 2015 championship.”
The teams now enjoy an almost two-month break ahead of the final round of the season at Tony Quinn’s Highlands Motorsport Park at Cromwell in the south island of New Zealand on November 7-9 where the 2014 champions will be crowned.
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 – check guides for details).
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Rnd#5 – 2014 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli
Sandown Park Raceway, Melbourne – Race#3 (40-minutes) (14 September)
1. Tony Quinn (GT – Aston Martin Vantage GT3) – 31-laps
2. Richard Muscat (GT – Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3)
3. Justin McMillan/David Russell (GT – Gallardo FL2 GT3)
4. John Bowe/Peter Edwards (GT – Ferrari 458 Italia GT3)
5. John Morriss (GT – Porsche GT3-R)
6. Ross Lilley (GT – Gallardo FL2 GT3)
7. Dean Koutsoumidis/James Winslow (GTT – Audi R8 LMS GT3)
8. Kevin Weeks (GTT – Ford GT) – 30-laps
9. Rod Salmon/Nathan Antunes (GTT – Audi R8 LMS GT3)
10. Jim Manolios/Ryan Millier (GT – Ferrari 458 Italia GT3)
11. Steve McLaughlan (GT – Audi R8 LMS GT3 ultra)
12. Andrew Macpherson (GT – Porsche 997 GT3-R)
13. Michael Hovey/Matt Campbell (GTT – Porsche GT3 Cup)
14. Indiran Padayachee (GTC – Porsche GT3 Cup)
15. Simon Ellingham (GTT – Porsche Type 997 GT3 Cup)
16. Ben Foessel (GTC – Porsche GT3 Cup)
17. Jan Jinadasa/Daniel Gaunt (GTT – Lamborghini Gallardo LP520)
18. Brendan Cook/Matt Kingsley (GTC – Porsche GT3 Cup) – 29-laps
19. Ockert Fourie/John Magro (GTT – Audi R8 LMS GT3) – 28-laps
20. Tony Martin (GTS – Ginetta G50 GT4)
21. Mark Griffith (GTS – Ginetta G50 GT4)
2014 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli
GT Championship Class points (after round five of six)
1. Richard Muscat (487 points), 2. Tony Quinn (455), 3. John Bowe (388), 4. Justin McMillan (313), 5. Klark Quinn (292), 6. Peter Edwards (273), 7. Steven Richards (213), 8. Tony D’Alberto (147), 9. James Koundouris (138), 10. Ross Lilley (136), 11. Andrew MacPherson (119), 12. David Russell (101), 13. Steve McLaughlan (93), 14. John Morriss (89), 15. Steve Owen (84), 1165. Jim Manolios (78), 17. Ryan Millier (74), 18. Garth Tander (58), 18. Warren Luff (58), 20. Jack Le Brocq (52), 21. Josh Hunt/Adrian Deitz (43), 22. Tony DeFelice (32), 23. Craig Baird (30), 24. Ben Porter (24), 25. Roger Lago (1)
GT Trophy Class points (after round five of six)
1. Rod Salmon (507 points), 2. Dean Koutsoumidis/James Winslow (475), 3. Nathan Antunes (439), 4. Michael Hovey (314), 5. Jan Jinadasa/Daniel Gaunt (276), 6. Theo Koundouris (265), 7. Matt Campbell (175), 8. Simon Ellingham (173), 9. Kevin Weeks (132), 10. Indiran Padayachee (116), 11. Ockert Fourie/John Magro (99), 12. Steve McLaughlan (97), 13. Dale Paterson (70), 14. Liam Talbot (68), 15. Ben Eggleston (56), 16. Sam Power (52), 17. Barton Mawer (48), 18. Andrew MacPherson (44), 19. Keith Kassulke (33), 20. Jono Lester (29), 21. Peter Conroy/Dean Grant (18), 22. Duvashen Padayachee (16), 23. Warren Luff (10), 24. Jonathon Venter (1), 25. Graham Lusty/Geoff Fane (0)
GT Challenge Class points (after round five of six)
1. Ben Foessel (541 points), 2. Brendan Cook/Matt Kingsley (493), 3. Michael Almond (150), 4. George Foessel (149), 5. Paul Van Loenhout/Renato Loberto (102), 6. Indiran Padayachee (77), 7. Jeff Neale/Terry Knight (43)
GT Sports Class points (after round five of six)
1. Mark Griffith (485 points), 2. Tony Martin (373), 3. Tony Alford (297), 4. Mark O’Connor (110), 5. Hayden Cooper (102), 6. Karl Reindler (58), 7. Grant Bromley (52), 8. Ryan McLeod (42)
The 2014 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli is proudly supported by Pirelli, AHG Ltd, Darrell Lea, Mentum Design and Z Motorsport Memorabilia.