Kiwis Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles have taken their second GT World Challenge Australia podium in as many races at Queensland Raceway, finishing second in Sunday’s outing.
A storming start saw Leitch gain four spots over the opening lap before he passed the Dayle ITM Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2 over to Miles mid-race, who brought the car in behind only the Audi R8 of Supercars star Will Brown and Brad Schumacher.
Declan Fraser and Peter Hackett (Mercedes-AMG GT3) completed the podium ahead of Arise Racing’s #1 Ferrari 296 of Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot.
The third Kiwi in the field, Jaxon Evans, partnered with Elliott Schutte in Arise Racing’s #8 Ferrari, finished sixth.
Pole-sitter Jayden Ojeda discovered a cracked brake rotor on the way to the grid, but the Tigani Motorsport crew repaired the Mercedes just minutes before the race began.
Starting sixth, Leitch got off to a flyer and shot to second, ahead of Brown and behind only Ojeda.
The pole-sitter maintained an advantage of no more than two seconds in the opening 15 minutes, with Brown remaining close to Leitch as the front three pulled clear.
With the Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti entries forced to sit an extra 10 seconds in the pits and the Leitch & Miles stopped for five seconds, Schumacher hit the front 35 minutes in when he was handed the #87 from Brown.
Miles returned to second, five seconds off the lead and five seconds ahead of third-placed Lucchitti.
Hackett took third in the final 15 minutes but could not make up the distance to Miles, finishing three seconds behind the Kiwi, who in turn crossed the finish line eight seconds behind the race winner.
Mostert and Talbot were a distant 11.7 seconds behind in fourth and 10 seconds clear of a fading Lucchitti, who held off a late challenge from Schutte to complete the top five.
Mostert and Talbot remain in the series’s lead but only have a one-point advantage over Schumacher and Brown. Leitch and Miles are a further 2 points adrift to see the top three entries separated by just 3 points with three rounds remaining.
The GT World Challenge Australia returns on August 23-25 for the brand-new GT Festival at Phillip Island.
Header Image: Insyde Media (Rhys Vandersyde)
