Arise Ferrari Scores Debut Win at Phillip Island

Arise Racing GT scored a debut victory with its new Ferrari 296 GT3 in last weekend’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS opener at Phillip Island.

Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot led a 1-2 for the newly formed team in the opening race of the weekend on Saturday ahead of the sister car of Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte, after the second-placed MPC Audi of Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles was penalized.

Leitch had been closing in on Mostert in the closing stages amid a late rain shower before the race ended early following a crash for the Black Wolf Mercedes-AMG of Ben Schoots.

But Leitch was handed a 40-second time penalty for passing Evans earlier in the race under yellow flags, dropping from second to fourth in the process.

Promoted to third was another of the MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs, that of Will Brown and Brad Schumacher, while the best of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos, the Triple Eight Race Engineering car of Peter Hackett and Declan Fraser, was fifth.

Am class honors went to the Tigani Motorsport-run Valmont Audi of Sergio Pires and Marcel Valloua in eighth overall.

Leitch made amends for his penalty in Sunday’s second race, as he and Miles came out on top in a battle against MPC Audi stablemates Brown and Schumacher.

The battle was decided in favour of the all-Kiwi pairing when Schumacher spun exiting the Southern Loop while trying to pass Miles for the lead.

That left Brown and Schumacher third at the finish behind the Tigani Mercedes-AMG of Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti.

Hopes of Arise making it a double victory were undone during the pitstops as Talbot stalled exiting his pit box after being forced to give way to another car, an error that was compounded by a spin for Talbot at the Southern Loop.

Talbot recovered to finish fourth in the car he shares with Mostert ahead of the Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG of Brown and Fraser.

Ash Samadi took victory in the Am class in his MPC Audi, finishing ninth overall.

Leitch and Miles leave Phillip Island tied at the top of the points standings with Talbot on Mostert, with both crews on 37 points, with Brown and Schumacher third on 30 points.

The next Fanatec GT Australia round is scheduled to take place at The Bend Motorsport Park on May 31-June 2.

Results: Race 1/Race 2