Feeney, Schumacher Champions After Perfect Finale Weekend
Photo: GT World Challenge Australia
Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher were crowned GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS champions with a pair of victories in the final round of the season at Hampton Downs, overhauling the long-time points-leading Arise Racing GT Ferrari.
The occupants of the No. 888 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II scored a perfect 50 points over the course of the weekend, overturning the 28-point deficit they faced to Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte heading to New Zealand.
Evans and Schutte had led the standings since winning the very first race of the season at Phillip Island in April in their No. 26 Ferrari 296 GT3, but a five-second penalty assessed to Schutte in the second race for a safety car restart infraction that dropped he and Evans from second to seventh proved fatal to their title hopes.
That result, combined with fourth place in the opener, meant that Evans and Schutte found themselves beaten to the title by four points in the final analysis.
Feeney and Schumacher began the weekend with victory on Saturday after Feeney closed down a 17-second deficit to the Volante Rosso Aston Martin Vantage of Josh Hunt, who inherited the lead after a strong first stint from Liam Talbot.
Hunt conceded the lead with four minutes on the clock and would finish almost five seconds adrift in second, while Steve Brooks and Ryan Wood took the final podium place aboard their No. 88 MPC Audi, a further 16 seconds down.
Opening lap contact between Brooks and Schutte left the points-leading Arise Ferrari down the order early on, although Evans was able to recover to fourth by the finish after passing the Audis of Jonny Reid and Damien Leitch.
That result meant Evans and Schutte needed a fourth-place finish in the second race to assure themselves of the championship, a result that looked on the cards until a late safety car period caused by a stoppage for the No. 27 IMS Audi.
Not only did that allow Schumacher to take the lead with two laps to go, it also led to the critical penalty that Schutte picked up for accelerated too early on the restart.
That penalty promoted the No. 88 Audi of Wood and Brooks to second, while Paul Lucchitti and Jayden Ojeda were promoted to third in their Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo ahead of the Volante Aston of Hunt and Talbot.
Ojeda survived unscathed after first-lap contact that eliminated both the OnlyFans-backed MPC Audi of Leitch, who was sharing the car with already-crowned Am champion Renee Gracie, and the sister No. 55 Tigani Mercedes-AMG of Marcel Zalloua.
In the Am class, Grant Donaldson and Darren Currie took a clean sweep of wins aboard their 111 Racing Mercedes-AMG.
Source: Sports Car 365