Brendon Leitch and Geyer Valmont Racing co-driver Sergio Pires were cruelly starved of a second-place finish in the GT World Challenge Australia closer at Phillip Island.
Leitch and Pires survived changeable conditions on Saturday morning to each qualify third for the weekend’s two races at Melbourne’s motorcycle grand prix venue.
On Saturday afternoon, Pires started the first 60-minute race and rose to second straight away, thanks to a strong start from the second row to pip Tigani Motorsport teammate Paul Lucchitti.
Showers crossed the circuit during an early Safety Car period, and on the restart, Pires spun at the Southern Loop. The No.44 Mercedes-AMG made light contact with the inside marshal post, causing damage to the front splitter and left guard.
Pires and Leitch battled an ill-handling car for the rest of the race to salvage fifth place, which became fourth when the Arise Racing Ferrari of Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte, immediately ahead of them, was penalised 15 seconds for an incident with another competitor earlier in the race.
On Sunday afternoon, Leitch began the 60-minute race and spent the first stint trying to pass Evans, but couldn’t find a way through.
The Invercargill-born driver handed the car over to Pires in third, and the Sydneysider quickly climbed to second with a pass on Evans’ co-driver Schutte shortly after the pit stop cycle.
Leitch and Pires were on course to claim second in a Tigani Motorsport one-two until Mark Rosser made a clumsy mistake and crashed into the side of the Geyer Valmont-backed Mercedes-AMG at Turn 4.
Rosser and his Team BRM co-driver Thomas Randle were given a 40-second penalty, but the damage was far worse for Leitch and Pires, who failed to finish and scored zero points.
“It’s great to finally be back in the GT World Challenge Australia pit lane again,” said Leitch, who made his first series start since June last year.
“My first weekend working with Sergio and Tigani Motorsport was great. The team have made me feel very welcome, and I feel like I’ve been able to fit right in.
“To finish fourth on Saturday was a remarkable achievement for Sergio and me with the damage the car suffered.
“With the broken front splitter, the car was driving more like a forklift. I was having to turn the car with the rear by giving it heaps of throttle steer.
“I pushed so hard to keep the gap under 15 seconds to Jaxon and just got fourth by half a second, all while Ryan Wood was pushing pretty hard to catch me.”
Leitch expressed his disappointment over the incident on Sunday afternoon that ended his race just a minute away from Pires seeing the chequered flag.
“On Sunday, we should have been celebrating a one-two finish for Tigani Motorsport,” Leitch added.
“Sergio did everything right. He managed the gap to the guys behind, but sometimes you can’t control someone else’s stupid mistake, and unfortunately, we came off second-best.
“That driver has been around long enough that he should probably know better, to be honest. If not for that crash, we would have been leading the championship.”
Leitch tempered his disappointment with optimism in the speed the Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG fleet showed across the weekend.
Teammates Shane Smollen and Oscar Targett claimed second place in Saturday’s race while Paul Lucchitti and Jayden Ojeda took the win on Sunday.
“Considering how quick we were, it’s a shame that the scoresheet looks like that,” said Leitch.
“It was great to see my teammates on the podium, and we should have been up there with them. That will come pretty soon, though, I’ve got no doubt about that.”
Leitch and Pires will continue their GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS season with Tigani Motorsport at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park at Tailem Bend on May 8-10.
Leitch will have very little time to relax, with the Kiwi flying to Malaysia for the opening round of GT World Challenge Asia at Sepang.
Header Image: Race Projects/Daniel Kalisz
