Feeney, Schumacher Retake Points Lead With Darwin Win

Audi crews dominated last weekend’s fourth round of the GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS season at Hidden Valley Raceway as Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher moved back into the points lead with two events remaining.

Feeney and Schumacher followed up fourth in Saturday’s opener with a second win of the year on Sunday, their first since the Phillip Island season opener, at the wheel of their Melbourne Performance Centre-run No. 1 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

That made it two wins from two for the venerable R8 as Team BRM pair Mark Rosser and Alex Peroni opened their win account for 2026 in the first race.

It means Feeney and Schumacher take a ten-point lead into the final two rounds of the season in their bid to defend last year’s title, with Rosser now tied with pre-Hidden Valley points leaders Brendon Leitch and Sergio Pires in second overall.

Schumacher had taken pole for the opening race on Saturday, but was given a three-place grid penalty for unnecessarily impeding another car.

That meant Rosser started the race from pole in the No. 268 Audi, and he survived with his lead in tact after a dramatic first lap that saw Schumacher spin as he attempted to pass for the lead around the outside and several others making contact behind.

As a result, Paul Lucchitti was thrust from seventh to second in his Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, then briefly dropping behind Steve Brooks in the second BRM Audi before Brooks was shown the black-and-orange flag for bodywork damage.

Rosser extended a comfortable 15-second lead in the opening stint before handing over to Peroni, who took the checkered flag a little under nine seconds ahead of his opposite number in the No. 66 Mercedes-AMG, Jayden Ojeda.

The battle for the final podium spot went the way of the OnlyFans Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 after Renee Gracie fought her way up to third in the opening stint before handing over to Will Davison, who was then able to hold off a recovering Feeney.

Schumacher recovered from his early spin to run fourth prior to the stops, but picked up a five-second penalty for making contact with Pires’ Mercedes-AMG — who had been delayed in the Turn 1 chaos at the start — before Feeney took the wheel.

Fifth was the Zagame Autosport Ferrari of Josh Buchan and Cameron Campbell as a seventh-place finish for Pires and Leitch cost them the points lead to Rosser.

It was Buchan who started Sunday’s second race from pole, and in an equally dramatic start the Ferrari driver made contact with fellow front-row starter Wood, who dropped down the order as a result, along with the Tigani Mercedes-AMG of Leitch.

That released Feeney into second place, and that was how the order remained at the front until the pit stops, when Campbell and Schumacher took over.

Campbell initially held on but finally had to yield to Schumacher at Turn 1 with 13 minutes left on the clock, as the latter went on to win by seven seconds and put himself and Feeney back ahead of Rosser in the race for the championship.

Attention immediately turned to the fight for second between Campbell and Brooks, who had emerged third after the stops following a charge by his co-driver Wood in the wake of his first lap off, also benefiting from Rosser and Peroni’s success penalty.

In the end, there was nothing Campbell could do to keep Brooks at bay, although the Ferrari driver hung on for third and a first podium of the season.

Valentino Atsuti and Darren Currie were fourth in the second MPC Audi, while Leitch and Pires completed the top five despite that car’s early dramas. Rosser and Peroni meanwhile could no more than seventh after their 15-second success penalty.

In the Trophy class, Paul Stokell and the returning Matt Stoupas won the first race in their MPC Audi, before their only rivals for the weekend, Tigani Porsche duo Nathan Halstead and Luke Youlden, triumphed in the finale in their new 991.2-spec car.

The GTWC Australia season continues at Sydney Motorsport Park on Sept. 18-20.

RESULTS: Race 1/Race 2