A post-race penalty stripped Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles of third place in the second race of the GT World Challenge Australia at Phillip Island.
Leitch, who started the Dayle ITM Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II from fifth, got to fourth on the start and was gifted third when the Jayden Ojeda/Paul Lucchitti Mercedes-AMG GT3 suffered a mechanical failure as a result of contact with Leitch in the opening laps.
Leitch came into the pits in third behind the two Arise Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 entries and handed the car over to Miles, who exited in second behind the Jaxon Evans/Elliott Schutte car.
Miles dropped to third behind the Liam Talbot/Chaz Mostert entry shortly after the restart and fought valiantly to keep his podium place despite pressure from the Stephen Grove/Brenton Grove Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the pack of cars behind him.
Miles crossed the line in third but was handed a post-race drive-through penalty (40 seconds) for breaching Article 36.8 of the GT World Challenge Australia sporting regulations.
Article 36.8 states in part: “During any pit stop, without exception, the Driver is obliged to turn off the engine. Other than for tuning or regulating, the car’s engine may be restarted only when the car is about to join the track and is in contact with the ground, on all four wheels.”
Why the car had to be raised in the first instance could be traced back to Saturday’s race when Leitch suffered a puncture in the final minutes and lost third place. As a precaution, the team decided to switch the car’s tyres from one side to the other in Sunday’s race to reduce the risk of another tyre failure.
If not for the tyre change, the car would not have been raised. Miles started the car while it was in the air for just a few seconds before being released and incurred a penalty as a result.
Leitch labelled the penalty brutal for him and Miles. After letting two podium finishes slip through their grasp, the pair are at long odds to win the GT World Challenge Australia championship.
The only silver lining for Leitch was resetting the track’s lap record by seven-tenths of a second on Saturday before the right rear tyre let go.
“For all the speed we showed this weekend, we have absolutely nothing to show for it. That hurts because we came to Phillip Island just three points off the lead, and now we’re a long way behind. We should be second in the points going to Sydney,” Leitch explained.
“The penalty is brutal and pretty tough to take. It’s done a lot of damage to the points standings, and I don’t feel like the penalty fits the crime. Tim deserves to come away with two trophies. He was faultless in the first race, and how he defended during his stint in race two was amazing. He has come along in leaps and bounds this year.”
While Leitch felt he and the team were hard done by, Miles took responsibility for his actions.
“Disappointed to lose a place to Liam on tack but even more disappointed to lose nine places to a penalty. It’s clearly my bad. I started the car while I was in the air. I need to understand the rules better,” said Miles.
Leitch and Miles remain third in the standings but are now 28 points behind series leaders Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot.
Leitch will head to the Red Bull Ring in Austria on Monday to test with Leipert Motorsport in a Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo for two days.
Leitch and Miles will reunite at Sydney Motorsport Park on October 18-20. Before then, Leitch will make his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut with Porsche team MDK Motorsport alongside Kerong Li and Anders Fjordbach.
Header Image: Daniel Kalisz/Race Project
