Capacity Field For Australian GT Round In Townsville

Capacity Field For Australian GT Round In Townsville

A CAPACITY field of 34 cars has entered for Round 3 of the Australian GT Championship Presented by Pirelli to be run on the roads of Reid Park in Townsville on July 10-12.

This year is the third time Australian GT has visited the hybrid road/street course in North Queensland and the second year in a row.

Last year’s eventual champion Richard Muscat won the Townsville round in 2014 with three different team and car combinations winning the three races.

This year’s round will feature a different race format with a pair of one-hour endurance races around the ‘bullring’ 2.8-kilometre layout and the entry list is packed with quality.

The ongoing growth and development of the Australian GT category is firmly on display and will be headlined by 20 entries in the outright Championship class and supported strongly by nine Trophy cars and five Challenge class runners.

Phillip Island 101 winners Christopher Mies and Greg Crick have moved into the lead of the AGT Championship and return in one of two JAMEC PEM Audi R8 LMS Ultras with Steven McLaughlan driving solo in the other.

Mies and Crick lead the Championship class by nine points over the McLaren 650S of Phillip Island 101 runner-up Tony Quinn with Adelaide round winner Nathan Antunes a further 40 points behind in third.

Quinn is in the middle of an amazing run of podium finishes – he’s finished on the podium in the last seven rounds in a row since early 2014 over the space of the last 12 months.

Erebus Motorsport will be back to full strength in North Queensland with two Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3s. Morgan Haber will return to action after his accident in the opening round in Adelaide left him on the sidelines for Phillip Island.

The Kiwi Trass Family Motorsport Ferrari of Jono Lester and Graeme Smyth has taken both pole positions so far this season at Adelaide and Phillip Island and again will be fast while Tony D’Alberto and Grant Denyer will again drive the Maranello 458 GT3.

D’Alberto has experience in a Ferrari in Townsville, claiming victory in Race 2 there last year in partnership with John Bowe and setting the AGT lap record.

Bowe will again be on the grid in Townsville though sharing the Maranello-run Flying B Racing Bentley Continental GT3.

Albury-based Andrew Jones will be on double duty in Townsville, sharing Adrian Deitz’s Ferrari 458 GT3 in addition to his regular V8 Supercar Development Series duties with Brad Jones Racing.

Jack LeBrocq will also dovetail Australian GT duties with his Development Series commitments. The former AGT round winner will again co-driver with Justin McMillan in the Interlloy M Motorsport Camaro.

Former V8 Supercar race winner Steve Owen shared a Porsche with Theo Koundouris in the last round at Phillip Island but will compete against Koundouris in the Trophy class in Townsville as he moves into the co-driver role with Kevin Weeks in the Supaloc Ford GT.

Kiwi Simon Ellingham has enlisted Carrera Cup young gun Matt Campbell to share the Fastway Couriers Trophy Class Porsche after Campbell impressed at Phillip Island in Michael Hovey’s Ginetta G55.

They’ll be chasing down Trophy Class points leaders Greg Taylor and Barton Mawer, whose Wall Racing Audi R8 holds a 22 point lead over Theo Koundouris’ Porsche.

Trophy Class racer Ben Foessel has added Formula 3 charger Hayden Cooper to his Ginetta entry in a bid to catch the category’s front runners.

Challenge Class leaders Tony Alford and Mark O’Connor hold a 52-point lead over Michael O’Donnell’s Porsche, though Alford will drive solo in Townsville.

The round also sees the introduction of a new driver classification system into Australian GT.

Six different levels of grading within both the ‘Pro’ and ‘Am’ drivers classifications will now be used to ensure a closer spread of pit stop times to accurately reflect the different experience levels and speed of drivers.

The Australian GT Championship drivers will have an early start in Townsville with Friday morning practice at 7.10am followed by Qualifying 1 at 10.10am.

The second qualifying session will be held at 7.35am on Saturday before Race 1 over 46 laps (one hour) starts at 11.55am.

The final 46-lap, one-hour race will be at 12.10pm on Sunday to round out the weekend.