Race 2 for Monochrome GT4 Australia at GT Festival Sandown had no shortage of drama as the results across all three classes were determined by tyre strategy as teams and drivers navigated the challenging track.
Spinouts to Glenn Nirwan in the Tufflift Racing TSM McLaren Artura GT4 and Jamie Arratoon in the AR Nineteen Mercedes-AMG GT4 brought out the first safety car, before a crash to Arratoon’s teammate Mark Griffith brought out the second.
Silver Cup
Jake Camilleri has taken out his first ever Silver Cup win in Monochrome GT4 Australia thanks to a late charge in the dramatic race.
In what was his maiden outing in the Gomersall Motorsport Ford Mustang GT4 after switching to the new car in between rounds, Camilleri managed to charge his way to the win in the final stint of the race, overtaking Nash Morris in the TekworkX Motorsport / ZW Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS with less than 10 minutes remaining.
Up until that point, Morris and co-driver Zoe Woods had led the field for the majority of the race after gaining the lead early as a result of the team’s decision to start on wet tyres as opposed to slicks – giving Woods the early advantage during the opening laps when she was in the car.
Despite multiple safety car interventions, both Woods and Morris defended their respective leads and built buffers on the restarts, making the decision to avoid switching tyres in the compulsory pit stop seem to have paid off.
However, as the race reached its final stages, Morris was unable to hold onto the lead as his degrading wet tyres began to give way – Camilleri passing with ease once he eventually reached the Porsche of Morris with eight minutes to go.
While he was unable to claim the win, Morris did manage to hold onto second place as the chasing pack behind ran out of time – Rylan Gray in the Miedecke Motorsport with Lubrimaxx Ford Mustang GT4 he shares with George Miedecke rounding out the Silver podium.
Not far behind Gray across the line was Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Jarrod Hughes in the Mercedes-AMG GT4 he shared with Summer Rintoule – the West Australian posting a track lap record in his attempts to secure a podium position.
Silver-Am Cup
Cameron Crick and Dean Campbell overcame a trying weekend by taking a victory in the Silver-Am Cup – an incredible result considering Campbell found himself spinning in the early chaos.
The pair had started way down the order following a challenging qualifying session yesterday, but when the eventful race came to an end, DA Campbell Transport Ford Mustang GT4 emerged in the front of the class – eventually securing the victory by two seconds.
Finishing in second place was the Thunder Buddies Racing’s BMW M4 GT4 G82 of Ryder Quinn and Steve Jakic, who made up just as many places as the winners, while Gomersall Motorsport’s Aaron Seton and Jason Gomersall rounded out the podium in their Ford Mustang GT4.
The top three proved to be a surprise podium, as Ryan Hansford had led the way for much of the race before giving the Multispares Racing Ford Mustang to Aaron Cameron, who came out on top.
Once back out, Cameron faced some pressure from Keltic Racing’s Matthew McCutcheon, who had entered the track in second after he picked up the Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO 2 from Tony Quinn.
Although he had built an one-minute lead, Cameron was forced back to the pits for a stop-and-go penalty due to a shortened pit stop, which handed McCutcheon the lead.
The Queenslander was eventually hunted down by Crick with six minutes to go before eventually retiring from the race – the retirement essentially promoted Ryder to second place and Seton to third place, capping off a dramatic race for the class.
Am Cup
Peter Lawrence secured his first win for the 2025 Monochrome GT4 Australia season, after the Randall Racing driver produced a stellar second half of the one-hour race.
Behind the wheel of the team’s BMW M4 GT4 G82, Lawrence started towards the back of the class and the overall field, however opted to take his pit stop right towards the end of the race, giving himself track position during the entertaining race.
Claiming second for the race and enjoying a highly contrasting result to yesterday’s disappointment was Glenn Walker in the BMW M4 GT4 F82 of Gomersall Motorsport, while Nathan Callaghan and Chris Lillis rounded out the podium in the Method Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS.
Following the two dramatic safety car interventions, Walker and Lawrence had both found themselves in the outright top five after both had made a heap of positions up the order.
While Walker made the majority of those due to his tyre choice at the start of the race, like Nash Morris, he was eventually chased down as Lawrence got the overtake done with seven minutes remaining in the race after pitting extremely late.
The victory ends a dominant streak from the class’ overall title contenders, which has seen Jacob Lawrence and Shane Smollen win every race of the season so far.
Monochrome GT4 Australia now looks towards the penultimate round of the 2025 season, which takes place at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park on September 5-7.