The GT World Challenge Australia grid returned to The Bend Motorsport Park for Race 2 of Round 10, with success penalties set to shake up the order after Saturday’s opener.
Race 1 winners Mark Rosser and Alex Peroni carried a 15-second success penalty into Sunday’s race, while second-placed Kiwi Jaxon Evans and co-driver Elliott Schutte faced a 10-second penalty.
Third-place finishers Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher were also handicapped with a 5-second penalty.
In qualifying, Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti stormed to pole position with a 1:45.2067 lap, narrowly edging out Evans and Schutte by just 0.135 seconds.
Kiwi pairing Steve Brooks and Ryan Wood, who finished fourth in Race 1, lined up third alongside Feeney and Schumacher. Row three featured Jordan Love and Stephen Wyatt in fifth, with Rosser and Peroni starting sixth.
At lights out, Evans in the Arise Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 challenged Ojeda’s Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG into Turn 1, but Ojeda held firm. Peroni made a blistering start, climbing from sixth to third as the field streamed through Turn 2. Wood slotted into fourth, followed by Feeney in fifth and Love in sixth.
Ten minutes in, Ojeda had stretched his lead over Evans to 1.9 seconds. Peroni remained third, but under pressure from Wood, with Feeney in close pursuit.
Drama struck with 25 minutes remaining when Peroni’s Team BRM Audi ground to a halt between Turns 11 and 12 with a power failure. His retirement promoted Wood to third, Feeney to fourth, and Love into the top five.
The pit window opened soon after, with the leading contenders diving in for their mandatory stops.
Schumacher emerged from the cycle in third after taking over from Feeney, gaining track position over Brooks due to a slightly delayed Wolfbrook/Team MPC stop. Lucchitti retained the race lead after taking over from Ojeda, while Schutte held second after serving the 10-second success penalty.
The race was briefly neutralised when Peroni’s stricken Audi brought out the Safety Car with 20 minutes to go. Racing resumed with 13 minutes left, Lucchitti executing a perfect restart to maintain the lead.
Further drama unfolded when Liam Talbot clipped the rear of Wyatt’s Ferrari, spinning him off at Turn 13 with 10 minutes to go. Wyatt rejoined at the back of the lead lap, while Talbot was handed a 15-second time penalty for the incident.
The closing stages were fiercely contested, with the top four, Lucchitti, Schutte, Schumacher, and Talbot, covered by little more than two seconds.
With five minutes to go, Talbot forced his way past Brooks for fourth, though the penalty hanging over him meant any late charge would ultimately be undone.
On the final lap, Schumacher found a way past Schutte into second place, while Lucchitti resisted immense pressure to secure victory for himself and Ojeda.
Schumacher and Feeney finished second, with Evans and Schutte completing the podium. Talbot crossed the line in fourth, but his penalty dropped him to sixth, promoting Brooks and Wood to fourth and Zalloua/King to fifth.
In the Am class, Renee Gracie dominated from start to finish in her Team MPC Audi, ahead of brothers Theo and James Koundouris in the Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG, with Ben Schoots and Shane Woodman taking third in the Black Wolf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG.
Matthew Stoupas and Gary Higgon claimed Trophy Cup honours in their Team MPC Audi R8 LMS EVO.
With only one round remaining, the 2025 GT World Challenge Australia championship now heads across the Tasman for its season finale at Hampton Downs in New Zealand, from 31 October to 2 November.
Header Image: Arise Racing GT
