Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles win GT World Challenge race at Phillip Island

The Kiwi pairing of Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles (Dayle ITM Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2) have won a thrilling second race of the opening 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS round at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria, Australia.

“So happy with the result,” commented Leitch. “Tim drove a fantastic final stint and defended like a champion.”

Leitch started Sunday’s race before handing over to Miles during their compulsory pitstop for the latter to take the lead until the chequered flag. This included a titanic battle with a very fast Brad Schumacher (Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2) who could not get passed, only to spin out of contention.

“It’s fantastic to get the win,” said Miles. “Brad (Schumacher) was superb to race against and there were a couple of places he may have had a lunge and in the end, it didn’t work out for him.”

“The key was for me to get a good start and stay with the leaders,” said Leitch. “We were holding third when Chaz (Mostert) pitted a lap earlier than us so I was able to get some clean air and a quick lap. The pitstop went really well and Tim was able to get out into the lead.”

Having crossed the line in second place in the opening race of the Series on Saturday, a penalty saw the pairing drop to fourth overall.

“That was unfortunate,” said Leitch. “Tim had already got a penalty for speeding in pit-lane so we dropped from fifth to starting tenth. He managed to move up to eighth in his first stint. Despite the weather worsening, I was able to drive through the field to second and just didn’t see the yellow flag when attempting a pass around the outside of Jaxon Evans, so a post-race time penalty dropped us to fourth.

The Ferrari 296 GT3 of Chaz Mostert/ Liam Talbot won the race after it was ended early with a red flag due to a late shower of rain had caused several cars to leave the field.

The Bend Motorsport Park hosts the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS for Round 2 on May 31-June 2.