Hidden Valley Round Attracts 13-Car Entry

This weekend’s fourth round of the GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS season at Hidden Valley Raceway has attracted a 13-car entry.

Revealed on Tuesday, the entry list for the Darwin event features 11 cars battling it out for overall honors in Pro-Am and a pair of Trophy Class entries.

It marks the smallest field of the season so far, with both Volante Rosso Motorsport — as previously announced — and Wall Racing not making the trip north.

It also means that McLaren, Aston Martin and Lamborghini, are not represented on the grid, leaving four marques: Audi, Mercedes-AMG, Ferrari and Porsche.

However, the grid is bolstered by the return of the No. 666 Team BRM Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of JP Drake and Garnet Patterson, which appeared earlier in the year at The Bend but skipped the most recent round at Queensland Raceway.

Tigani Motorsport’s No. 71 Porsche 911 GT3 R, shared by Nathan Halstead and Luke Youlden, is now in 991.2 spec, instead of 991.1 as per the opening rounds.

This is understood to be a newly-acquired car that previously raced in GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS in the hands of the JRM team.

The only other Trophy Class car, the KFC-backed No. 24 Team MPC Audi, sees Paul Stokell back alongside Gary Higgon after skipping last month’s Queensland event.

Elsewhere, Shane Smollen returns to driving duties in the No. 66 Tigani Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo alongside regular partner Oscar Targett after one race away.

Tigani duo Brendon Leitch and Sergio Pires lead the standings by nine points from their stablemates Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti, with MPC Audi pair Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher a further three points back in third overall.

After free practice and Bronze practice on Friday, qualifying as well as the opening race will take place on Saturday, with the finale following on Sunday.