Ferraris Dominate Inaugural GT Festival at Phillip Island
Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot have made it two round victories at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in season 2024, scoring a win and a second-place finish behind the wheel of their #1 Ferrari 296 GT3, as part of the SRO-run GT Festival over the weekend.
The round success extends their lead in this year’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS championship campaign to 30–points, with Will Brown and Brad Schumacher remaining in second.
In AM Class, Mike Sheargold and Garth Walden (Mercedes) remained consistent to narrowly beat Marcel Zalloua and Sergio Pires (Audi), while Paul Morris and Scott Taylor claimed Trophy Cup honours driving the #222 Porsche 911 GT3-R.
While it was a relatively smooth weekend for the Arise Racing GT Ferraris, there was plenty of drama unfolding behind them thanks to hard racing, and tyre failures forcing competitors out of contention for potential podium results.
Mostert and Talbot got their weekends off to the best possible start, each claiming pole position in their respective qualifying sessions Saturday morning.
The opening one-hour race of the weekend, Saturday afternoon, saw the #1 Ferrari convert pole into a healthy race lead with Talbot behind the wheel.
Heading into Turn 1, Paul Stokell (Audi) tagged the rear of Peter Hackett (Mercedes) sending him into a spin and dropping to the rear of the field. Stokell was handed a 15–second penalty for his role in the incident.
Schumacher was another high-profile entry to spin, this time at Turn 4 after he pushed too deep under brakes while in pursuit of Mark Rosser (Mercedes).
Despite the drama unfolding behind, Talbot settled into a consistent pace to manage his lead, before handing the Ferrari over to Mostert in the compulsory pit stop window.
With maximising tyre life on his mind, Mostert guided the Ferrari home in first place, ahead of Alex Peroni and Mark Rosser (Audi), with Declan Fraser on the final step of the podium in the Mercedes he shared with Hackett.
Zalloua and Pires secured the AM Class win ahead of Sheargold and Walden in a battle that extended into Race 2 on Sunday, with Ben Schoots and Shane Woodman third in class.
New Zealand pairing Tim Miles and Brendon Leitch were making steady progress in Saturday’s race, with Leitch setting a new lap record in their Audi R8 LMS GT3.
Although quick, Leitch unfortunately paid the price as his right-rear tyre delaminated in the closing stages of the race, forcing him out of contention and into the pits for an unscheduled tyre change.
The #8 Ferrari of Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte suffered a similar fate in the dying stages of the race, a failing tyre forcing a trip through the pits and dropping them to P9.
Sunday’s Race 2 saw a dramatic improvement in fortunes for the #8 Ferrari as Schutte and Evans took out the win, leading home stablemates Mostert and Talbot for a Ferrari 1-2.
With a front-row start, Evans took the challenge to Mostert into Turn 1, but slipped behind an opportunistic Jayden Ojeda who stole P2 in his Mercedes.
Ojeda then came under fire just a few laps later, allowing a small gap for Evans to sneak back into second, with Leitch looming in third. Things continued to tumble for Ojeda as he appeared to slow as he was dropping back through the field.
Alex Gardner tried to overtake Ojeda at Turn 11 around the outside, however the Aston Martin tagged the Mercedes, sending Gardner into the gravel trap and triggering a Safety Car period.
Following the race restart, the running order was Mostert leading from teammate Evans, Leitch and Brenton Grove in the Mercedes he shared with his father, Stephen.
With Schutte behind the wheel of the #8 Ferrari, he successfully passed Talbot where he remained until the end of the race.
With Arise Racing GT home on the top steps of the podium, it was the Grove Mercedes home in third to cap off an encouraging weekend for the father-son combination.
Walden and Sheargold took the win in the AM classification thanks to their P6 finish in the overall standings, with Koundouris brothers Theo and James home P2 in their division. Ash Samadi (Audi) was third.
Taylor and Morris completed a clean-sweep of wins in the Trophy Cup for older model GT3 machine.
You can catch all the action from the inaugural GT Festival on demand via the GT World Challenge YouTube channel, or Fox Sports and Kayo with an active subscription.
The next round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS is scheduled to take place at the Shannons SpeedSeries, October 18–20, at Sydney Motorsport Park.
This event will be highlighted by a three-hour endurance race, adding another layer of excitement for the fledgling championship.
