Camilleri steals wet and wild GT4 finale
A mighty solo effort from Jake Camilleri has helped him steal GT4 Australia honours from Nash Morris as the weather created plenty of headaches at Sandown.
Camilleri snatched the lead inside the final eight minutes, but this did not stop him from taking a mighty 25s win in what was a fascinating and confusing hour-long race in mixed conditions.
A wet tyre gamble almost paid off Nash Morris and Zoey Woods, who led the majority of the race, but did not quite have enough rubber to retain the lead.
Rylan Gray put in a storming final stint to snare third with George Miedecke inside the final minute ahead of Jarrod Hughes/Summer Rintoule and Cody Burcher/Tim Leahey.
Despite falling from third to sixth late on, Peter and Jacob Lawrence were still thrilled to take Am honours. Cameron Crick and Dean Campbell took Silver Am.
Confusion reigned as the field got shaken up following a mid-race Safety Car that took place during the pit window.
With the train forming behind a car that was yet to pit and boxed later during the interruption, leader Morris was 12th in the train, leaving the likes of Gray almost a lap behind.
Light rain arrived as soon as the cars left the grid
Cameron Multispares Mustang, Quinn Toyota, Soutar McLaren changed to wets during the formation lap.
The rest were on slicks when the lights went out and Miedecke used his experience to charge away from the field.
Geoghegan led into Turn 1, but could not stay on the track and spun in front of the field, slipping to sixth.
This ensured Miedecke enjoyed a massive 4s margin as early as the back straight.
However, the wet tyres gamble was paying off handsomely for Woods, who was flying and was not finished after soaring from to second within the opening lap.
By the end of the second tour Woods had not only caught Miedecke, but passed him and she did not look back, flying to a 6s advantage.
However, this was wiped out by a Lap 3 Safety Car caused by Glenn Nirwan, who got stuck in the mud after a spin at Turn 2.
He was not the first to make the mistake, with Dean Campbell and Arratoon doing the same.
To add further intrigue and heartbreak for Woods, the sun arrived during the interruption, swinging the advantage back to the slick runners.
Racing resumed with 36 minutes left on the clock and Woods set about rebuilding her advantage whilst there was still some dampness left on the track.
She did just that, pulling more than 2s before Dandenong Road, while the Silver Cup title rivals were back fighting once again.
Having fought his way back to third and recovered from the early spin, Geoghegan resumed his rivalry with Miedecke, but only briefly as the McLaren struggled on slicks and lost third to wet-runner Walker.
The Method Motorsport McLaren soon slumped outside of the top five as the wet tyre drivers continued to charge up the order.
Walker needed one more lap to snare second from Miedecke, while Hansford put in a storming drive from the back of the pack to third with Tony Quinn in his slipstream.
Price was caught out in the Nippy’s Audi, becoming the latest to join the Turn 2-3 spinners club.
But it was a rotation for Griffith at the high-speed Turn 5 brought out the Safety Car just in time for the pit window where a key tyre choice was required.
Everyone boxed with Morris retaining the track position earned from Woods from Walker, Camilleri and Cameron, while Gray in the Miedecke Motorsport Mustang dropped down to ninth on the timing.
However, that was not the order on track when the Safety Car lights with the lapped Murray leading the train with McCutcheon the first driver on the lead lap due to no wave through taking place.
As a result, two races were going on with the sixth-place McCutcheon driving away from the train, while Morris was leading the race 12th in the train with a second clear of Cameron and just tried to stay out of trouble.
The chaos saw Gray and Hayman go side by side with the Mustang winning the battle at Dandenong Road for ninth.
Cameron sat second until Lap 22 when he boxed to change to slicks and sacrificed track position.
This saw the Multispares Mustang fall to ninth, just behind Gray and Hughes, who were lapping four seconds faster than the leader.
As a result, Morris was released with a 7s advantage over the slick-shod Camilleri with Walker clinging onto third on the road and first in Am with Lawrence right behind.
However, that gap was slashed as Morris ran out of grip and Camilleri caught the Porsche with eight minutes to go.
He stole the lead with a late dive at Turn 4 and blazed away into the distance.
Attention turned to the fight for the final step of the podium with Lawrence clinging on.
However, the likes of Gray, Hughes and Burcher were flying more than 5s a lap faster and hauled him in inside the final minute.
They even came within 3s of hauling in Morris after a stunning charge.
That wraps up GT4 action with GT World Challenge Australia and Trans Am to complete the Sunday action.
Image: Gomersall Motorsport
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