Qualifying 1 and 2 for GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS has wrapped at GT Festival Sandown, with Arise GT Racing emerging as the dominant force in both sessions.
Both of the team’s entries delivered standout performances in a dramatic Saturday morning qualifying, with the returning Jordan Love securing pole in Qualifying 1 alongside Steve Wyatt, before series leader Elliott Schutte put the second Arise Ferrari, shared with Jaxon Evans on top in Qualifying 2.
For the first time this season, Am class leader Renee Gracie was denied a pole position on Saturday, as 111 Racing’s Grant Donaldson and Darren Currie stole the spotlight with standout individual performances.
In Qualifying 1, a fairly straightforward start to the session was marred midway through when Alex Peroni ended up in the tyre barrier at turn 4, temporarily bringing out the red flag.
Although the Tasmanian was able to get the Team BRM Audi R8 LMS Evo II back to the garage on its own, the duo’s qualifying charge was all but done as the team looks to fix the car ahead of Race 1.
Qualifying 1 began smoothly before being interrupted by a red flag when Alex Peroni ended up in the Turn 4 tyre barrier. Although the Team BRM/ACM Finance Audi R8 LMS Evo II returned to the garage under its own power, the incident effectively ended their qualifying run as the crew now works to repair the car ahead of Race 1.
The interruption threw the session into chaos, as drivers scrambled to record a competitive lap before the time ran out, but building on his strong Friday form, Love secured pole with a commanding 1m08.216s – three tenths quicker than Jayden Ojeda in the Realta/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, who split the two Arise entries. Evans was a further three tenths behind in third.
Paul Stokell took top honours in the Trophy Class for KFC/Team MPC, qualifying ninth outright, while Currie edged out Black Wolf Motorsport’s Ben Schoots by two tenths in the Am Cup battle.
Qualifying 2 proved to be a cleaner session, with Elliott Schutte going fastest overall in a thrilling battle to edge out Brad Schumacher in the Kelso Electrical/Team MPC Audi R8 LMS Evo II by just one tenth of a second.
Shannons/Volante Rosso Motorsport’s Liam Talbot secured third in the Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3, just a further two tenths off despite a late-session spin that left him facing the wrong way.
In the Am class, Donaldson took over qualifying duties for 111 Racing and impressed with a lap two tenths clear of Gracie. Matt Stoupas led the way in the Trophy Class, lapping just under a second off the Am pole time set by Donaldson.
GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS has Race 1 today, which will be led by Schutte at 3:10pm AEST.