17 Cars Entered for Phillip Island Opener

A total of 17 cars have been entered for this weekend’s opening round of the new GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS season at Phillip Island.

Released on Wednesday, the entry list for the two 60-minute races at the picturesque Victoria circuit features 13 cars entered in the battle for overall honors in Pro-Am, along with three Trophy class cars and a sole Am class competitor.

It features also seven brands, with Audi being the best represented marque with five cars ahead of Mercedes-AMG and Ferrari on four apiece.

On top of the full-season entries that have been revealed by the SRO Motorsports Australia-operated series so far, the field for Phillip Island is bolstered by an additional two Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs from Melbourne Performance Centre.

One is the No. 2 Pro-Am-entered car shared by Valentino Astuti, making his first series appearance since 2024, and Darren Currie, while the other is the No. 24 Trophy class effort for Matt Stoupas and Paul Stokell, run under the ‘KFC Team MPC’ banner.

It bolsters the number of MPC-fielded cars to three, alongside the previously-announced No. 1 car for defending Pro-Am champions Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher.

As well as Audi, Mercedes-AMG and Ferrari, also represented on the grid at Phillip Island are Aston Martin, Lamborghini, McLaren and Porsche, all with single cars each.

Track action begins on Friday with a pair of one-hour practice sessions, before a pair of 15-minute qualifying sessions on Saturday morning.

The opening race is slated for Saturday 3:55 p.m. local time (0:55 a.m. EST), while the second takes place on Sunday at 1:40 p.m. (Saturday 10:40 p.m. EST).