Purdie and Price race their way to maiden GT4 win

Blake Purdie and Daniel Price have completed an impressive GT4 Australia win by taking a maiden Silver Cup win in an exciting Phillip Island finale.

Purdie had great speed in the final stint to soar past Rylan Gray and blaze to a convincing 3s win in the Audi.

After a late Safety Car, the hour race became a 12-minute sprint and it was a tight four-car fight for victory between Gray/George Miedecke, Tim Leahey/Cody Burcher, Purdie/Price and Tom Hayman/Max Geoghegan.

It was the Audi that had the legs with Purdie passing Gray in the final 10 minutes and pulling away from the Mustang.

This left the #100 Ford and Hayman to wrestle for second and the McLaren won the battle on the penultimate tour.

Leahey put in a strong drive to fourth ahead of Nash Morris and Zoey Woods, while yet again Jarrod Hughes and Summer Rintoule charged from the back to sixth having been disqualified from a similar charge on Saturday.

In seventh the leading Silver Am entry was Daniel Frougas and Tim Berryman in the new Toyota Supra GT4, having held off Aaron Seton.

Jacob Lawrence put in a strong solo drive to take a solid 5s victory in Am.

Miedecke won the rolling start against Price with Geoghegan and Camilleri settling in behind.

Whilst it was all settled up front, there was chaos further back.

Dean Campbell in the new Cam Crick Ford Mustang spun out of control at Doohan Corner.

It was not clear if there was contact, but Campbell spun in the middle of the pack which left Glenn Nirwan with nowhere to go and get stuck in the sand.

This produced the first Safety Car of the weekend and it was not until the 15 minute mark racing resumed.

Geoghegan went on the attack straight away and stole second from Price with a heavy braking dive at Miller.

This created a two-horse race with Miedecke and Geoghegan charging away from the field.

Behind them Zoey Woods was also on the move, making a bold pass around the outside of Astuti at Stoner Corner for sixth.

But sadly a lap later she dropped a wheel coming out of Southern Loop and lost two spots to eighth, promoting Astuti’s Ginetta once again.

Bucher and Camilleri also produced some great racing throughout Lap 6 with the BMW winning the fierce fight for fourth.

Although Miedecke was in control, Geoghegan was the fastest car on track and slashed the deficit to less than half a second, catching the back of the Mustang by Lap 9.

But he could not quite get close enough to make a move before the pit window opened on Lap 10.

Miedecke boxed from the lead at the earliest opportunity, while Geoghegan stayed out, hunting clear air.

The Method Motorsport McLaren stayed out a further three laps before completing the driver change.

But the big factor was the compulsory pit stop time with the McLaren being forced to stay in the lane for a further 10s.

As a result, Gray retained the lead comfortably with Hayman dropping to fourth, but only 8s away with Leahey and Purdie between them.

This produced a tense four-car battle for victory across the final 24 minutes.

Their charge was disrupted by a Safety Car for former Am leader Chris Lillis stuck in the gravel on the entry to Lukey Heights.

It was unclear why Lillis was stuck, but there were suggestions of a possible clash with Ryder Quinn.

It was a huge boost for Hayman in particular with the pack closed up, but with only 12 minutes on the clock when racing resumed, he had to get a move on.

Hayman did so by swooping around the outside of Leahey at Southern Loop, which snared third.

But the top two were a further second up the road with Purdie the fastest car on track and applying the blowtorch on Gray.

The pass was made coming out of MG, seeing Purdie surge to the lead on GT4 debut.

Suddenly the top three were now nose to tail in a stunning sight and Gray tried to respond with looks at Doohan and Miller, but could not quite get close enough.

After some intense laps, Purdie managed to pull a second of breathing space ahead of the final three minutes.

This left Hayman and Gray to wrestle for second and the McLaren again emerged on top with a nice move at the final turn on the penultimate lap.

Further back Hughes made some staggering moves, including a committed double overtake at Doohan to surge to sixth.

Camilleri was also battling around the top 10, but was a late victim finding the tyres coming out of Siberia.

After an entertaining opening round, GT4 Australia returns at Sydney Motorsport Park on May 2-4.

Image: GT4 Australia

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