Gracie, Davison Give OnlyFans Racing First Overall Win
Photo: GT World Challenge Australia
Renee Gracie and Will Davison gave OnlyFans Racing its first outright victory in last weekend’s GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS round at Queensland Raceway.
The occupants of the No. 181 Ferrari 296 GT3 prevailed by a little under four seconds in Saturday’s opening round of the weekend, giving Am class champion Gracie her first overall win since returning to the Pro-Am ranks with her long-time backer.
Sunday’s race was won by Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG pair Sergio Pires and Brendon Leitch, who move into the championship lead at the halfway point.
Gracie took the start of the first race second behind the No. 56 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Justin Tigani, younger brother of team owner Nathan who was standing in for an absent Shane Smollen alongside Oscar Targett.
However, by the end of the opening stint Gracie had managed to pass Tigani on-track for the lead before pulling away to the tune of some three seconds, paving the way for her and Supercars star Davison to take a comfortable win.
Tigani and Targett finished second, while Pires and Leitch steered their No. 44 Mercedes-AMG to the final spot on the podium, the two cars split by eight tenths at the finish.
Fourth on the road had been the Arise Racing GT Ferrari of Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte, but a time penalty for a pit stop that was faster than the minimum allowed dropped the pair to eighth in the final classification.
That promoted the Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher to the position, with the Team BRM Audi of Mark Rosser and the returning Alex Peroni, back from earlier injuries, completing the top five.
Pires and Leitch dominated Sunday’s finale after Leitch jumped poleman Targett off the line to take an early lead, as Targett was left to fend off the attentions of both Feeney and the BRM-run Wolfbrook Audi of Ryan Wood early on.
An eight-second advantage for Leitch was enough for Pires to keep the lead even after the No. 44 car’s success penalty, with Schutte moving up to second ahead of Wood’s co-driver Steve Brooks after the pit stop phase — during which BRM’s No. 1 Audi slid down the order as the door didn’t open when Feeney was making way for Schumacher.
Brooks capitalized on a mistake by Schutte to claim second, falling short of Pires by just over a second, with Schutte’s Ferrari in turn less than a second back in third.
Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti were fourth in their No. 66 Mercedes-AMG, a further nine seconds back, while Rosser and Peroni completed the top five.
Gracie and Davison could only follow up their win with an eighth-place finish on Sunday, a legacy of Davison making a poor getaway from fourth on the grid.
In the Trophy class, both races were won by the No. 71 Tigani Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R of Luke Youlden and Nathan Halstead.
Leitch and Pires lead the drivers’ standings on 85 points, nine clear of Ojeda and Lucchitti, while Feeney and Schumacher are third, a further three behind.
The GTWC Australia season continues at Hidden Valley Raceway on July 24-26.
Source: Sports Car 365