Photo: GT World Challenge Australia
This weekend’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia, powered by the AWS curtain-raiser at Phillip Island, will see 17 cars compete.
The entry list for the season-opening double-header at the Victoria circuit was released on Tuesday, featuring nine GT3s in the top Pro-Am class in addition to seven Am class entries and one car in the GT Trophy category.
Heading the entry is the new Arise Racing GT team, who enter two Ferrari 296 GT3s, one for reigning champion Liam Talbot and Chaz Mostert and the other for Jackson Evans and Elliott Schutte, as announced by the team in February.
The only other multi-car effort in Pro-Am comes from the Melbourne Performance Center with a trio of Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs, with two driver combinations, Tim Miles/Brendan Leitch and Brad Schumacher/Will Brown, announced earlier.
The third entry is shared by ex-Supercars driver-turned-actress Renee Gracie, last year’s GT Trophy champion, and Paul Stockel, who drove for MPC last year in Am.
An additional Audi will be driven by Mark Rosser and Alex Peroni with Team BRM, while the rest of the Pro-Am entry consists of one-car Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo crews: Grove Racing (Steven Grove/Brenton Grove), Tigani Motorsport ( Jayden Ojeda/Paul Lucchitti) and Triple Eight Race Engineering (Declan Fraser/Peter Hackett).
With both Schumacher and Stockel moving up from Am to Pro-Am this year, the highest-placed returning Am car is the Mercedes-AMG entered by RAM Racing for Michael Sheargold and Garth Walden, who finished third in last year’s standings in class.
The class entry includes a further three Mercedes-AMGs from Tigani Motorsport, Tony Bates Motorsport and Black Wolf Motorsport and a trio of Audis, two of which are entered by MPC and another from Tigani under the Valmont Racing banner.
The standalone GT Trophy is the Trading Garage-entered Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, bringing the number of manufacturers on the grid to four.
“There has been great support from the teams and drivers for SRO Australia’s first season at the helm of Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS,” said SRO Australia CEO Ben McMellan.
“This is the most competitive field we’ve seen, with the brightest contenders going into a Fanatec GT season. It’s a very exciting lineup of cars and stars.
“We’ve got a batch of new cars that have arrived and the Ferraris are a big addition to the field. The Ferrari brand is extremely prestigious around the world, so that makes it really positive for our local fans.
“It will be very difficult to pick a winner. There are several entries in both Pro-Am and Am that have the ability to win their class. It’s the most competitive field we’ve ever seen in Australia.”
After a private test day on Thursday, the Phillip Island weekend begins in earnest with two practice sessions on Friday, with qualifying taking place on Saturday morning before the start of the first race at 1pm local time (Friday, 11pm EDT).
The second race is scheduled for Sunday at 2:55 p.m. local time (12:55 p.m. EDT).
