Marcos Flack and Tom Hayman have extended their lead in the Silver Cup title race after the Method Motorsport duo secured back-to-back victories in Monochrome GT4 Australia on Sunday.
With the sun shining over Sydney Motorsport Park for the series’ second one-hour outing of the weekend, Flack and Hayman proved just too strong once again as both drivers produced solid stints to lead the 20-strong field to the chequered flag.
Crossing the finish line in second place outright behind the Silver Cup winners was a trio of Pro-Am cars, led by victors Josh Buchan and Jason Yu after a highly entertaining run saw them claim a race-high 14 overtakes during the 33-lap affair.
Taking out top honours in the AM class after an equally impressive performance was Anthony Levitt, the solo driver’s emphatic eight-second victory sealing a clean sweep of class wins for the McLaren Artura GT4.
While Levitt did an exceptional job to secure the victory (having led the class for the majority of the race), the day belonged to Randle Racing’s Jacob Lawrence, who sealed the 2024 Am class title after finishing in second place alongside John Bowe, while Tony Quinn guided his Porsche 718 Cayman to the class podium.
With the race enjoying a rolling start, there was drama before the lights went green. The #1 Porsche 718 Cayman of Shane Smollen handed a five second penalty due to an incorrect start procedure.
It was a clean start for all drivers off the line, with the BMW M4 of Cody Burcher and the Ford Mustang of Rylan Gray leading the field, with yesterday’s winner in Hayman on the second row.
It didn't take long for the Silver Cup lead to change as Gray got past Burcher on the opening lap before the Polesitter dropped to third on the fourth lap when Hayman pulled off an impressive overtake around the outside. Shortly after slotting into second place, Hayman then made a successful pass on Gray to move into top spot.
With an additional 15 seconds set to be added onto the race one winners' pit stop, Hayman was a man on a mission in the early stages of his stint, as he guided the McLaren to a comfortable buffer of almost three seconds before the field was brought back together due to the race’s only Safety Car intervention on Lap 8.
The Safety Car interruption occurred due to an incident to the #17 Mercedes of Bailey Love, who fell to the back of the field behind the Ginetta of Mark Cotterell, who had done a brilliant job to get his G55 back racing after issues early on in the race.
Despite the field now in close proximity due to the Safety Car, it didn’t faze Hayman, who enjoyed a seamless restart and charged back out to a five second lead.
Following the cycle of pit stops for all drivers, Flack ended up back in top spot thanks to the good work from Hayman and never looked in doubt of relinquishing the lead.
The battle for the Silver Cup minor positions looked like it was going to go down to the wire as a solid opening stint from Antonio Astuti helped the Love Motorsport #27 Mercedes AMG into a contesting position.
Unfortunately he was unable to hold onto his position of second in class, eventually falling behind George Miedecke in the #35 Ford Mustang and settling for third place in class.
The Pro-Am class proved far less straightforward, as yesterday’s winner in Daniel Jilesen found himself leading the class and keeping Shane Smollen at bay in the TekworkX Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman.
Despite Jilesen producing a good run of laps during his stint, compensation time added onto their pitstop left teammate Zoe Woods further down the order when she rejoined the field..
At the same time, Zagame Motorsport’s Josh Buchan was on a charge up the order having taken over from teammate Jason Yu on lap 13.
From the minute he got behind the wheel of the McLaren, Buchan picked off drivers one by one to put himself in the class lead and within reach of the outright victory.
Although he was unable to chase down the overall race leaders, Buchan skipped away from the next best Pro Am driver in Lachlan Mineeff, who had done a brilliant job after taking over from Smollen and completing his time penalty.
Both Buchan and Mineeff then found themselves in the outright top three, before the series debutant wrestled his way into fourth outright and kept the Buckby Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT4 he shared with fellow Tasmanian Ben Newman on the class podium.
Just one round remains in Monochrome GT4 Australia’s 2024 season, with Mount Panorama to host the final event of the year as part of the Bathurst International on November 8-10.