Evans and Schutte complete Sydney clean sweep with impressive Race 2 victory

Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte have completed a clean sweep of GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS in Sydney after taking out top honours in Race Two on Sunday afternoon.

Following a dominant Saturday where the pair charged to a 15-second victory, another faultless performance in the Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 from the pair saw them cross the line ten seconds ahead of the Melbourne Performance Centre (MPC) Audi R8 LMS EVO II of Ryan Wood and Steve Brooks, while MPC teammates Brad Schumacher and Broc Feeney rounded out the Pro-Am podium.

With Evans starting behind the wheel for the first stint of the race, the Western Australian was a man on a mission in the opening laps as he charged out to a healthy lead of a few seconds right from the get-go. Behind him, Wood was amongst a couple of drivers to get some early overtakes in – his move on Tony Da’Alberto in the Lamborghini proving pivotal in the scheme of the race overall.

Following his overtake of Da’Alberto in the opening laps, Wood did his best to chase down Evans, who had built a lead of more than five seconds. Da’Alberto meanwhile was putting on an impressive defence as a line of GT3 cars began to form behind him.

One car part of that line was Jayden Ojeda in the Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO – the New South Welshman who replicated his Race One efforts to charge up the field after starting from the back of the grid.

For the rest of his stint, Da’Alberto refused to give up third place as both Evans and Wood broke away from the group, getting out to an almost unassailable lead. Eventually, when the Wall Racing driver came into the pits, it gave the likes of Feeney, Ojeda and Brendon Leitch a chance to get some clean air and good lap times.

By the time they all came into the pits though, Evans had built a big enough lead that Schutte came out in second place despite serving a longer pit stop due to their victory yesterday.

Coming out more than seven seconds behind the new race leader in Brooks, it took Schutte just ten minutes to close him down before eventually making a move in the final few minutes of the race.

The West Australian would eventually reach the chequered flag comfortably ahead of Brooks – securing their third win in four races and giving the pair a healthy lead in the overall season standings.

Brooks did manage to enjoy an easy second place as Schumacher crossed the line almost nine seconds behind, while Ojeda’s co-driver Paul Lucchitti guided the Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG to fourth place, edging out Tim Miles in the MPC Audi R8 LMS EVO II he shares with Leitch by just half a second.

Schutte and Evans weren’t the only ones to enjoy a perfect weekend in their respective class either, with Renee Gracie scoring her second Am Cup victory for the weekend in her Audi R8 LMS EVO II.

Facing some early challenges from the Black Wolf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO 5200 of Benjamin Schotots and Shane Woodman before losing the lead due to extended pit stops, like Schutte, Gracie charged her way back into the top spot.

Interestingly, the Mercedes-AMG ended up finishing third in the class after being overtaken by the Tigani Motorsport Audi R8 LMS EVO II of James and Theo Koundouris.  

Results are HERE