Rylan Gray has bought the Miedecke Motorsport with Lubrimaxx Ford Mustang GT4 home in the opening Monochrome GT4 Australia encounter to victory on debut at Phillip Island.
Gray overtook the Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 of Tom Hayman following the round of pit stops, but it proved a close battle until the chequered flag at the end of the 40-minute event.
Just 0.735s separated Gray and Hayman, with Am Class winner Tim Leahey completing the podium for Central West Prestige in his BMW M4 GT4 G82.
Love Motorsport’s Sam Brabham led from pole in his Mercedes-AMG GT4 as the field spectacularly entered Turn 1. The big mover was George Miedecke in the Mustang GT4 rising to third off the start, while Nathan Morcom in the second Method Motorsport McLaren dropped position.
However, Marcos Flack in the first of the Method Motorsport McLarens was battling for the lead and succeeded in demoting Brabham out of the lead at Turn 11 on the opening lap.
From there Brabham struggled with pace as Ryder Quinn driving alongside stepfather Steve Jakic in the Black Diamond Building and Construction BMW M4 GT4 G82 led the pack to pass the lead Love Motorsport Mercedes-AMG, which also included Miedecke and Morcom.
Morcom’s pass on Brabham allowed him to gap the Method Motorsport Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 of Lachlan Mineeff after the two had battled closely during the opening stages.
A big mover in the pack was Josh Buchan as he transitioned from TCR mode to driving the DNA Racing Team McLaren Artura GT4 to be shared with Jason Yu. The reigning TCR Australia Series winner was fresh from a race win and elevated the McLaren to ninth from the back before the pit stop sequence commenced.
A collision in pit lane between the second Love Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Antonio Astuti and Mineeff led to the retirement of the former, while the latter was delayed in pit lane as Smollen jumped in to score 15th.
Having taken over from Flack, Hayman held a slight lead back to Gray after he had assumed the controls of the Mustang from Miedecke, but it was the American muscle car holding the advantage against the McLaren.
Gray continued the momentum after scoring the Mustang’s first global pole earlier to hold on to victory, despite a renewed challenge from Hayman.
The outright top two also scored the respective positions in Silver Cup, with Leahey running a consistent race to take the final step on the rostrum and Am Cup honours.
Rounding out the Silver Cup podium was Jesse Bryan in fourth sharing with Morcom as Bailey Love came home fifth partnering Brabham.
Yu and Buchan were sixth to win Pro-Am Cup from Zoe Woods in the TekworkX Motorsport Porsche Cayman 718 GT4, Jake Camilleri in his Mercedes-AMG GT4, with Jacob Lawrence taking second in Am Cup teaming with John Bowe in the BMW M4 GT4 G82. Runner up in Pro-Am Cup were Jakic and Quinn in 10th outright.
Rounding out the podium in Am Class was the Buckby Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Tasmanians Ben Newman and Ed Maguire.
Race 2 for Monochrome GT4 Australia is schedule to commence at 10:15am AEST.