Central West Prestige’s Cody Burcher and Tim Leahey have combined for their third class victory Monochrome GT4 Australia of 2024, as the Silver Cup title fight intensifies heading into the final race of the season.
With Burcher and Leahey taking out Silver Cup honours for the day, behind them were Miedecke Motorsport/Lubrimaxx’s George Miedecke and Rylan Gray, who crucially finished two spots clear of key rivals Method Motorsport’s Marcos Flack and Tom Hayman to keep the class title fight alive.
In what was a brutal Am Cup battle, Anthony Soole and Grant Denyer proved to be the last ones standing, guiding the Property Investment Store McLaren 570s GT4 to victory.
Competition was just as tough in the Pro-Am Cup as Aaron Seton and Jason Gomersall won a close contest to take victory in the Gomersall Motorsport Ford Mustang GT4.
It was a perfect jump off the line for fellow Pro-Am rivals Lochie Dalton in the Buckby Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4, who quickly built a comfortable margin at the front of the field having started from Pole.
Behind him were a number of Pro-Am and Silver entries jostling for position as Miedecke led the second Mustang GT4 of Seton, Ryder Quinn in the Black Diamond Building and Construction BMW M4 GT4 G82 and Tim Leahey’s Central West Prestige similar example.
There were some dicey moments during a frantic opening stint, but Quinn was able to take second in Pro-Am Cup before two successful moves at The Chase helped him build a clear path to Dalton - ultimately falling just short before the pit window opened mid-race.
At this stage, Randall Racing took its familiar position of leading Am Cup, but this time it was the second BMW of Jamie Augustine, who had passed debutant Andrew Georgiadis in the TekworkX Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman CS RS after impressing in qualifying.
As Miedecke held a comfortable lead in Silver Cup, Flack was a comfortable fourth doing what Method Motorsport needed to take the win in Silver Cup.
The pit stops is where the race changed due to the podium at Sydney Motorsport Park, as Miedecke Motorsport Mustang was required to remain in the lane 10 seconds more than the standard time.
Leahey and Burcher didn’t have any extra time, enabling the Central West Prestige BMW to leave the lane first and move into the class lead.
The pit stops shook the class battles too as Dalton handed over to Ben Newman in the Pro-Am entering the second half, but he had Steve Jakic for company after swapping in for Quinn.
Am Cup was evenly poised as well, with Augustine handing over to Peter Lawrence in the midst of a battle involving Team Nineteen’s Mark Griffith, the Love Racing by Volante Rosso Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Bailey Love and Denyer in the Soole McLaren.
However, Denyer was the big mover of the lot and took the lead from fourth on Conrad Straight, before more drama followed.
Contact between Lawrence and Griffith at McPhillamy Park led to the Team Nineteen Mercedes-AMG GT4 nearly riding the bonnet of the Randall Racing BMW. Both attempted to continue, but had flat tyres as a result and headed into retirement.
Love was the big winner scoring second behind Denyer and Soole in Am Cup, while the second TekworkX Motorsport Porsche secured the final spot for debutants Georgiadis and Ramu Farrell.
The Pro-Am Cup fight was just as enthralling as Gomersall charged through on both Newman and Jakic in a five-way fight also involving Method Motorsport’s Shane Smollen in addition to the TekworkX Motorsport Porsche of Dan Jilesen.
Following Gomersall’s move for the lead, it was Smollen who disposed of Jakic first, then Newman.
It was a first win in Pro-Am for Seton and Gomersall behind the wheel of the new Mustang GT4, taking the win over newly crowned classed champions Smollen joined by Lachlan Mineeff.
Rounding the podium for Pro-am Cup was the Buckby Motorsport Mercedes-Benz for Tasmanian duo of Dalton and Ben Newman.
Making up the results in Silver Cup was Leahey and Burcher, as the latter managed the margin back to the pursuing Gray in the closing stages.
Second for Miedecke and Gray keeps the Silver Cup fight alive, though the journey to success is tougher for the pair.
Jake Camilleri split the two title contenders in the Gomersall Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4, leaving Flack and Hayman to cruise to fourth.
Just 17-points separate the two crews heading into Sunday’s finale at Bathurst commencing at 10:50am AEDT broadcast live through 7plus and internationally via GTWorld.