Evans/Schutte complete Ferrari dominance
Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte scored a breakthrough maiden win of their 2024 GT World Challenge Australia campaign to complete Ferrari’s perfect weekend.
After the #1 Arise Racing entry of Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot crushed the field on Saturday, Evans and Schutte had their time in the sun on Sunday at Phillip Island.
With the #1 just three tenths behind, it was a perfect formation finish as the Arise Racing Ferrari 296s recorded a 1-2, 15s ahead of the rest in a severe statement.
After three podiums across 2024 and the disappointment of Saturday’s flat tyre, it was a relief for both Evans and Schutte.
“It is great to get our first win together and 1-2 as well, so great team effort,” Evans said.
“Elliott drove brilliantly. We made some changes this weekend and they have paid off, so really big thanks to the team.”
Schutte was especially relieved having been the one behind the wheel to hold off a charging Talbot.
“It was very elusive and feels like a long time coming,” Schutte said.
“Thanks to Jaxon who did all the work and I just held on in the end.
“I thought ‘not again’ when he has his lights on is always pretty daunting.”
In GT3 Cup, Garth Walden and Mike Sheargold were well ahead of Theo and James Koundouris, while GT3 honours went to Scott Taylor and Paul Morris.
It was a dramatic race with a number of drivers finding trouble across the one-hour journey around the iconic circuit.
The Arise Racing GT Ferraris marked their dominance by charging into Turn 1 side-by-side, with Mostert taking the lead, while Evans dropped to third behind Jayden Ojeda.
In a crazy instance of history repeating itself, the Triple Eight Mercedes again rotated at Southern Loop, with Declan Fraser at the wheel this time.
Six laps later Evans was able to retake second place from Ojeda and establish the Arise Racing 1-2 once again.
Alex Peroni ran wide at Turn 1 moments before the Safety Car arrived due to Alex Gardner getting stuck in the gravel after contact with Ojeda at MG.
The next stoppage arrived just as the pit cycle was being completed after the other Aston Martin of Valentino Astuti collided with Shane Woodman.
In the pits the #1 Ferrari now driven by Talbot had dropped from first to fifth.
But he only needed one lap to account for both Brad Schumacher and the Grove Mercedes, while a drive-through for a pit stop infringement dropped Miles and Leitch out of the top three.
This left Talbot with seven laps to chase down his teammate and he got extremely close, but fell three tenths short.
The fight for third was thrilling as Schumacher spun out with Grove leading Peroni, Paul Stokell and Peter Hackett as just six tenths covered the quartet.
In GT4 Australia, Tim Leahey and Cody Burcher went back to back at Phillip Island.
Their #22 BMW emerged 4s clear of Marcos Flack and Tom Hayman, while Oscar Targett did it all on his own to get a podium in his first weekend of GT4.
The Ford GT4 Mustang of George Miedecke and Rylan Gray led the opening lap, only for smoke to surface on the following tour, which led to a mechanical black flag and DNF.
“We’re learning a lot this year. Sometimes the hard way,” said team principal, Andrew Miedecke.
“The gearbox failure on Sunday was totally unexpected. The first we knew that anything was wrong was when we saw smoke coming from under the car. Rylan had made a great start and was comfortably in front, but we had to park it.”
Gray was one of four DNFs that also included Jacob Lawrence, Anthony Levitt and Tom McLennan and Zoe Woods with the latter two clashing.
The GT World Challenge Australia and GT4 return at Sydney Motorsport Park on October 18-20.
Image: RACE PROJECT
GT World Challenge Australia GT Festival race 2 results
GT4 Australia GT Festival Race 2 results
READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION DIGITAL HERE
Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.
