Arise GT sweeps the GT Festival

In the FANATEC GT World Challenge Australia, the rounds 8 and 9 at Phillip Island were known as the GT Festival, but you could call it the Arise GT show as the pair of Ferrari 296 GT3s gave no chance to the opposition and were as greedy as they could possibly be, with a win for the No. 1 entry and the other race going to the No. 8 car.
 
Race 1 started with the No. 1 Arise Ferrari jumping massively in front while the No. 81 BRM Audi dealt quickly with the No. 87 Shaw & Partners Audi to get second place, and behind them the rest of the field wasn’t too mindful of the surroundings, so there was some panel bumping during the first laps, which called the first yellow flag.
 
With green flag waved back, Brad Schumacher tried the dive on Mark Rosser, but the No. 87 overcooked it and spun, and a penalized No. 181 OnlyFans Audi came to the party as Paul Stokell needed as much clean air possible to nullify the 15 seconds of added time, passing the No. 81 after four laps patiently trying to find room to move.
 
The pit window gave clear way and the second position back to the No. 81, but with more than 10 seconds down to the No.1 Arise Ferrari, Alex Peroni didn’t have too much left to counter Chaz Mostert, and outside some tire failures in the final minutes of the race, one of which eliminated the No. 7 DayleITM Audi from the podium, the order remained largely unchanged.
 
GTWC Australia - GT Festival Race 1 results
 
The No. 44 Valmont Audi took Am Cup honors with authority, while problematic runs from the Trophy entries gave the win to the No. 222 STM Porsche.
 

The Arise Ferraris were at positions 1 and 3 in the Race 2 grid, with the first corner at their advantage, but with only the No. 1 car taking advantage to stay in the lead as the No. 8 had to lift to avoid side by side contact if not something worse, though it took less than a lap for Jaxon Evans to clear Jayden Ojeda in the No. 66 Realta Mercedes and position himself behind Chaz Mostert.
 
While the No. 66 and the No. 7 DayleITM Audi were settling their differences for third place, the pair of Arise Ferraris was going away with the top spots, but with the No. 14 Volante Rosso Aston Martin stuck in the gravel and the Safety Car coming in, their progress was massively halted. After the pit window the No. 16 Black Wolf Mercedes brought the Safety Car again, but when the green flag was waved again the order of the Arise cars was reversed as the No. 8 was ahead.
 
With the pack led by the third placed No. 7 DayleITM Audi having their own battles, the leading Ferraris were basically unreachable for the rest of the race, and while the No. 8 Arise Ferrari won by the tiny margin it kept during most of the second stint, it didn’t slow down its pace or the No. 1 Arise Ferrari.
 
GTWC Australia - GT Festival Race 2 results
 
The No. 45 RAM GWR Mercedes secured the Am Cup win by leaving behind the No. 87 Shaw & Partners Audi after its spin on Turn 1, while the No. 222 STM Porsche got a clean race to conquer the Trophy class.
 
Talbot and Mostert (No. 1) hold the series lead with 140 points against 110 from Schumacher and Brown (No. 87), while Schutte and Evans (No. 8) appear in third with 106 points and the duo Hackett/Fraser (No. 888) have 101. The series will go to a break of nearly two months to go back at Sydney Motorsport Park on 20 October.
 
PHOTOS: SRO/Race Project/Daniel Kalisz