Phillip Island return completes GT calendar

A new GT Festival event in August at Phillip Island completes the 2024 GT World Challenge Australia calendar.

Previously six of the seven rounds were sealed with a TBC on August 23-25 the only missing piece, but that has now been filled with a new SRO promoted event.

After the 2024 season started at Phillip Island both the GT World Challenge and GT4 will return to the historic seaside venue.

The new GT Festival round will be Round 5 of the season in August with broadcasting, activation and ticketing to be revealed in due course.

In addition to the GT World Challenge and GT4 will be Australian Production Car series, which has now expanded its season from five rounds to six.

For the Supercars stars on show, it fits in a week after the trip to Tasmania, whilst there are no SpeedSeries rounds from the start of August to October.

As opposed to the SpeedSeries rounds, this will be the first SRO Motorsports Australia promoted event.

SRO Australia CEO Ben McMellan said it will be a big GT celebration.

“Launching the SRO-promoted GT Festival event allows us to continue to build the profile of both our Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS and the Monochrome GT4 Series in Australia” he said.

“This final piece of our 2024 calendar is a great addition. A GT-centric motorsport event at Phillip Island is the ideal place for these cars as it’s a track that shows the true capability of both GT3 and GT4 cars.

“The circuit is clearly a favourite amongst our teams and drivers, and they are looking forward to more track time there.

“All eyes are now on The Bend for Round 2. The first round at Phillip Island provided great racing and a big crowd, and we hope to see just as many people trackside at The Bend and the GT Festival in August.”

Production Car Racing Ltd General Manager, Troy Williams said it will be a great addition to the season.

“We are very excited to be able to announce that Meguiar’s Australian Production Cars will be racing at Phillip Island in 2024,” he said.

“The Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit is one of the best tracks in this country, and it always delivers amazing racing in picturesque surroundings for our competitors.

“We do acknowledge this is a late announcement as far as competitors planning their racing for the year, however we once again do have the ‘drop your worst round’ format incorporated within our championship points tally regulations this year so hopefully no one should be disadvantaged.

“We do hope to see as many of our regular competitors and hopefully some new faces too on track with us at this truly amazing circuit.”

2024 GT World Challenge Australia calendar

Round 1: Bathurst 12 Hour – 16-18 February (Endurance Cup)

Round 2: Phillip Island – 12-14 April

Round 3: The Bend – May 31 – June 2

Round 4: Queensland Raceway – August 2-4

Round 5: Phillip Island – 23-25 August

Round 6: Sydney Motorsport Park – 18-20 October (Endurance Cup)

Round 7: Bathurst International – 8-10 November

2024 Australian Production Car Series calendar

Round 1 – Sandown Raceway – February 9-11, 2024 – Four 30-minute races

Round 2 – The Bend – May 31-June 2 – Four 1 hour races

Round 3 – Queensland Raceway – July 12-14 – Two 2 hour races

Round 4 – Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit – August 23-25 – four 1 hour races

Round 5 – Sydney Motorsport Park – 18-20 October – Four 1 hour races

Round 6 – Bathurst International – 8-10 November – Four 30-minute races

Image: RACE PROJECT

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