Tigani outsmarts competition to win at Sydney endurance round

FANATEC GT World Challenge Australia had a change of pace last weekend, as the Sydney Motorsport Park hosted a three hour endurance round that delivered excitement and surprise despite the reduced numbers in the grid, with the No. 66 Realta/Tigani Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti playing the tactics right and winning the race without being direct favorites until the final hour.
 
At, the start of the race saw the No. 181 OnlyFans Audi jump straight to first, but while Paul Stikell was quickly distancing himself from the rest of the field, the No. 1 Arise Ferrari was closing down and preparing to attack.
 
Liam Talbot faced quite the wall as Stokell was unreachable, but when the No. 81 Team BRM Audi crashed nose first into the barriers, all teams took the time to make driver changes and other thing, and once the green was waved again, the No. 181 was easy prey as Renee Gracie couldn’t do much against a pack led by Chaz Mostert as she tumbled down the order to fifth, and to make matters worse for the No. 181, a 15 second stop and go due to unsafe release was issued.
 
Mostert wouldn’t have an easy ride, though, as Brendon Leitch did the mother of all divebombs to put the No. 7 DayleITM Audi in the lead, opening some sort of a gap to the No. 1. Another Safety Car came and the No. 1 took the lead again with the No. 181 coming back to second and the No. 7 going down to third, and with another neutralization period due to a spinning No. 44 Valmont Audi, the rest of the competition could have a close view of the leading No. 1 Ferrari again.
 
With another Safety Car period in between pit stop service, the No. 66 Tigani Mercedes emerged as the new leader and highly potential contender for the win, as Jayden Ojeda was carrying the car after the team outsmarted everybody by completing the three compulsory pit stops earlier and simply skipping the final hour service, achieving almost a minute ahead of the No. 1. With so much advantage in his hands, Ojeda just had to manage pace and bring the No. 66 Tigani Mercedes home to celebrate the victory, with the No. 1 Arise Ferrari finishing in second and the No. 7 DayleITM Audi came home in third.
 
While a puncture got in the way of the No. 46 RAM Motorsport Mercedes, with Garth Walden and Mike Sheargold doing a competent drive to the Am Cup win.
 
The series will have just one more weekend to close the season, as Bathurst hosts the last double header of 2024 on 9 and 10 November.
 
PHOTO: SRO/Daniel Kaliusz