The Shannons SpeedSeries’ GT Festival Sandown end as the final Qualifying sessions led to the opening races of the event.
GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS, Monochrome GT4 Australia, First Focus Radical Cup Australia, Trico Trans Am and Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series all provided plenty of excitement for an impressive Saturday crowd.
GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS
It was a close finish in the opening encounter for GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS, but the Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 continued its dream run for Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte.
The pole winning Ferrari had to play defence towards the end of the race thanks to a late challenge from Ryan Wood in the Wolfbrook Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
Wood’s attempt to take the lead at Turn 4 on the final lap just fell short, but this led to increased pressure from Broc Feeney driving the Kelso Electrical Team MPC Audi for his position, but the top three stayed the same until the chequered flag.
Evans and Schutte extend their lead in the standings, while Feeney sharing alongside Brad Schumacher will be pressing for more success on Sunday to close the gap.
Taking out Am Class top honours was Ben Schoots and Shane Woodman in Black Wolf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3, while Paul Stokell and Matt Stoupas secured the Trophy Class victory in the KFC/Team Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS.
Monochrome GT4 Australia
It was a welcome return to victory for the Miedecke Motorsport with Lubrimaxx Ford Mustang GT4 at Sandown following a dominant performance by Rylan Gray and George Miedecke leading the entire opening half of the race.
Behind, Silver Cup leaders Max Geoghegan and Tom Hayman driving the Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 made contact with another competitor ensuring the duo were penalised dropping to third in the race.
Splitting the two title contenders in Silver Cup was the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jarrod Hughes and Summer Rintoule.
GWR Australia’s Daniel Frougas and Tim Berryman added another victory for the Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo2 in Silver-Am ahead of class leaders Aaron Seton and Jason Gomersall following a spin in the Gomersall Motorsport Ford Mustang GT4.
Third was another Toyota GR Supra in the form of Tony Quinn and Matt McCutcheon for Keltic Racing.
Jacob Lawrence took the Am Cup win in the Randall Racing BMW M4 GT4 G82, beating the Method Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS of Shane Smollen, with 99motorsport’s Marcus LaDelle and Jarrod Keyte completing the podium.
First Focus Radical Cup Australia
Title combatants Peter Paddon and Cooper Cutts ended Saturday with a win apiece in First Focus Radical Cup Australia.
Paddon took pole in his GWR Australia Radical SR3 XXR by 0.110s from Cutts and category debutant Mason Harvey.
The top three remained the same at the end of Race 1, with Jim Hernandez scoring the Am Class win for Volante Rosso Motorsport.
Cutts took victory in Race 2 from Harvey as Paddon rounded out the podium, while Terry Knowles was victorious in Am Class.
Trico Trans Am Series
There was just one race for Trico Trans Am, which proved an entertaining affair.
Garry Rogers Motorsport’s James Golding took the win from Aaron Love for Marcos Ambrose Motorsport, while Jordan Cox finished third.
However, contact at the opening corner dropped debutant Cody Maynes-Rutty and Tom Davies to the back of the field, with Blake Tracey spinning in a separate incident at Turn 9.
In the Pro-Am class, Cameron Laws took an impressive victory ahead of a busy two-race day tomorrow.
Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series
Series protagonists Kody Garland and Joel Heinrich split the wins at Sandown, Garland getting victory in the opener and Heinrich finishing the day with the win.
In Race 1, Garland reached the chequered flag first ahead of Caleb Paterson and Heinrich, with Paterson taking the Rookie Cup win.
In the Masters Cup, Kent Quinn was victorious as Scott Dornan was successful in Gold Cup.
Unfortunately Race 2 ended early due to a rollover for Nathan Barber at Turn 1, leaving the race shortened by two and a half minutes.
As a result, Heinrich took the win from Rookie Cup winner Paterson and Garland.
Both Kent Quinn and Dorman won their respective Cups.
The final day of racing at GT Festival Sandown begins at 9:20am AEST broadcast live on 7plus.
