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‘Competitive’ field set for GT World Challenge opener

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: April 9, 2024

The new era of the GT World Challenge Australia championship is all set for Phillip Island this weekend with the “most competitive” field ever on display.

A 17-car grid featuring Ferraris, Mercedes and more has been confirmed for the first GT World Challenge Australia season under the control of SRO Motorsports Australia.

All eyes will be on Arise Racing and its new, red Ferrari 296 GT3 machines.

Leading the way will be the #1 steered by reigning champion Liam Talbot and Supercars star Chaz Mostert.

The high-profile combination steering the “Prancing Horse” will no doubt be one of the biggest storylines across the weekend.

They will not be the only ones with the Ferrari badge with the sister Arise Racing entry headed by Elliott Schutte and another Supercars full-timer Jaxon Evans.

Hoping to ensure the Ferraris don’t gallop to a first-up win will be a host of famous German brands.

After winning the championship last year Audi will be determined to keep on winning with Melbourne Performance Centre spearheaded by Supercars championship leader Will Brown, who has switched from TCR to GT.

He will partner Brad Schumacher in the #87, while Tim Miles and Brendon Leitch are also behind the wheel of the #7. The team also has an Am entry driven solely by Marc Cini.

Brown will have the interesting experience of racing against his Supercars team with Triple Eight Race Engineering fielding a one-car attack headed by Peter Hackett and Declan Fraser.

Grove Racing has made the jump from Porsche to Mercedes and both Stephen and Brenton Grove will race an AMG GT3 for the first time down under.

The Tigani Motorsport Mercedes cannot be discounted either with Jayden Ojeda hoping to carry on his form alongside Paul Lucchitti.

A notable omission will be the EMA Motorsport Porsche of Yasser Shahin, who has gone global and turned his attention to the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2024.

SRO CEO Ben McMellan believes it is the “most competitive field” ever in the championship.

“It’s the most competitive field that we have seen, with the the most outright contenders that have entered a Fanatec GT season. It’s a very exciting line-up of cars and stars.

“We have a batch of new cars that have arrived, and the Ferraris are a big addition to the field. The Ferrari brand is highly prestigious all around the world, so that makes it a real positive for our local fans.

“It’s going to be very hard to pick a winner. There’s several entries in both Pro-Am and Am that have the ability to win their class. It’s by far the most competiitve field we’ve ever seen in Australia.”

There has been a change in format for 2024 with teams able to test on the Thursday prior to the event, while opening practice takes place at 9.45 AEST.

Qualifying will continue to be split in two 20-minute sections to decide both grids for each race, starting at 10:35am, with the second segment beginning at 11am.

Race 1 begins at 1:00pm on Saturday afternoon, while Sunday’s second event starts at 2:55pm.

“The addition of the Thursday open test day for GT3 and GT4 competitors and teams has been greated as a major positive,” McMellan explained. 

“This follows how SRO rolls out its race weekends in Europe, Asia and America. It adds value for customers while keeping the costs down, compared to doing a stand-alone private test day.”

The Phillip Island SpeedSeries round will be broadcast on 7plus and 7mate.

GT World Challenge Australia Phillip Island entry list

No Class Driver 1 Driver 2 Team Model
1 Pro-Am Liam Talbot Chaz Mostert Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3
4 Pro-Am Stephen Grove Brenton Grove Grove Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3
7 Pro-Am Tim Miles Brendon Leitch Dayle ITM/Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2
8 Pro-Am Elliott Schutte Jaxon Evans Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3
9 Am Marc Cini Hallmarc Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2
16 Am Shane Woodman Ben Schoots Black Wolf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3
22 Am Ash Samadi Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2
24 Am Tony Bates Tony Bates Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3
38 GT Trophy Michael Bailey Trading Garage Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3
44 Am Marcel Zalloua Sergio Pires Valmont Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2
45 Am Michael Sheargold Garth Walden RAM Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3
47 Am James Koundouris Theo Koundouris Supabarn Supermarkets/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3
66 Pro-Am Paul Lucchitti Jayden Ojeda Realta/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3
81 Pro-Am Mark Rosser Alex Peroni Team BRM/ACM Finance Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2
87 Pro-Am Brad Schumacher Will Brown Shaw & Partners/Kelso Electrical/Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2
181 Pro-Am Renee Gracie Paul Stokell Only Fans/Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2
888 Pro-Am Peter Hackett Declan Fraser Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3

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