An understated achievement during the opening round of Monochrome GT4 Australia at Phillip Island was the giant-killing performance by the Ginetta crew of Lachlan Mineeff and Rob Rubis.
In what was their first meeting together, the pair guided their Ginetta G55 GT4 on the Silver-Am Cup podium in the second race to end the weekend on a high - much to the delight of their small, dedicated team, which included well-known driver Jordan Cox.
Rubis’ strong opening stint was matched by a superb defensive drive by Mineeff to hold off a contingent of Ford Mustang GT4s, McLaren Artura GT4s and and Mercedes-AMG GT4s to deliver the first podium for a Ginetta since Oscar Targett’s at last year’s Phillip Island GT Festival.
“It was phenomenal,” Rubis summarised.
“During the weekend to have Lachlan Mineeff and Jordan Cox engineering the Ginetta made it a very rewarding result in Race 2.
“The Ginetta tends to enjoy those types of circuits like Phillip Island, though it doesn’t like the long straights compared to the other marques, but it loves the fast corners.
“It’s a little bit of a young person’s car in terms of the way you have to ring its neck to get the optimum entry and mid-corner speed so the exit is right.”
Mineeff is a key inclusion to the team having secured the Pro-Am (now Silver-Am) Cup title last year alongside Shane Smollen in a Method Motorsport Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 RS CS.
The combination of Mineeff and Cox is interesting as both have been rivals on the track for some time but have added an extra level of professionalism to the team.
Rubis credited Mineeff’s drives across the weekend for delivering such strong results and also adding further to the G55 GT4’s development after receiving the package at the beginning of 2024 and debuting it at Queensland Raceway.
“Lachlan did an awesome job against the other professionals in the last half an hour and everything about the race went well,” Rubis said.
“I had a great start as I hung onto the back of the other contenders, setting it up for Lachlan. In all my years of motor racing, I thoroughly enjoyed that opening stint enormously.”
Rubis also lauded engineering guru Cox for his attention to detail in setting up the Ginetta for different conditions as this played a massive part in gaining the Race 2 result.
"Jordan is a magician with the suspension, but he did also change the anti-roll bar, shock and rear wing settings between the events due to the cooler conditions for Race 2 on Sunday morning,” Rubis explained.
“Jordan is terrific to work with and is very dedicated, but to also add in Lachlan as well was very, very good.
“To have two different young blokes, but in their own rights absolutely guns, was great as it led to a better feeling in the car.”
Rubis is excited for Sydney as the twisty back section of the circuit suits the Ginetta and with plans to complete further development between rounds, the G55 GT4 will be one to keep an eye on.
“Hopefully we’ll get to work on the car more prior to Sydney as we didn’t really get a chance prior to the opening round or much of last year,” Rubis added.
Monochrome GT4 Australia will contest Round 2 as part of a stacked Shannons SpeedSeries program at Sydney Motorsport Park on May 2-4.
Purchase tickets to the event via speedseries.com.au/tickets.