After a long break over the holidays, the GT3 cars are back for a 2 hour endurance race around the famous Mount Panorama track to celebrate the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12Hr race. Although it does not count towards the Racecentre GT3 league championship, it is a good warm up event for the drivers after the long break.
Qualifying:
Jaycie Richards set a blistering lap early on in the session to take provisional pole position. In the closing stage of the session however, David Carter managed to beat Jaycie’s time by less than 2 tenth of a second. A last-lap effort from Pat O’Reilly secured P3.
Race:
Jaycie had a great start from P2 alongside Dave, but ultimately unable to make the move stick into turn 2. The rest of the grid filed up behind the pair up the hill and settled down for the two hour race. Dave Carter made a mistake into the dipper and gave Jaycie an early lead on lap 2. But a pit stop error at the end of Jaycie’s first stint put him out of contention for the victory of the race.
Pat O’Reilly and Dave Carter traded places multiple times throughout the race. As the race came to its closing stages, Pat O’Reilly was closing in on David by over 6 seconds a lap due to David’s degrading tyres. Fortunately for David, he held on to the victory with Pat crossing the finishing line little over 1 second behind to take P2. Formula 4 driver Zane Goddard drove a faultless race to complete the podium. Dunlop series driver Bryce Fullwood had an unlucky race with a couple of early crashes that put him at the back of the grid, but he was able to charge through the field to come home at P4. Bryce will be racing in the Bathurst 12Hr this weekend for MARC Cars Australia. Good Luck Bryce !!!
By Jonathan Cheung
Race Results:
Finish | Start | Driver | Car | Car class | Laps | Race time | Fastest lap | Qual. time |
1 | 1 | David Carter | Class B | PRO | 55 | 1:59:26.366 | 2:06.481 | 2:04.833 |
2 | 3 | Pat O'Reilly | Class B | PRO | 55 | +0:01.057 | 2:05.133 | 2:05.066 |
3 | 9 | Zane Goddard | Class A | PAM | 54 | +1 lap | 2:06.679 | 2:17.345 |
4 | 4 | Bryce Fullwood | Class A | PAM | 53 | +2 laps | 2:08.886 | 2:07.308 |
5 | 11 | Chris Herringe | Class A | PAM | 53 | +2 laps | 2:08.456 | n/a |
6 | 6 | James Owen | Class B | PRO | 52 | +3 laps | 2:10.093 | 2:08.559 |
7 | 8 | Michael Donnellan | Class A | PAM | 52 | +3 laps | 2:11.850 | 2:11.162 |
8 | 5 | Chris Farkas | Class A | PAM | 51 | +4 laps | 2:08.763 | 2:08.355 |
9 | 2 | Jaycie Richards | Class B | PRO | 38 | Suspension | 2:05.578 | 2:04.997 |
10 | 7 | Jayme Hemi | Class A | PAM | 34 | DNF | 2:09.234 | 2:11.162 |
11 | 10 | Chris Khoury | Class B | PRO | 27 | DNF | 2:14.635 | n/a |
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