Feeney and Schumacher keep title hopes alive with gritty Race 1 win at Hampton Downs

The 2025 GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS Pro-Am title fight will go down to the final day of the season after Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher claimed victory in Race 1 of GT Festival Hampton Downs.

Driving the #888 Kelso Electrical/Team MPC Audi R8 LMS EVO II, the pair’s win came courtesy of a stunning comeback from Feeney, who overturned a 17-second deficit to take the chequered flag five seconds clear of Josh Hunt and Liam Talbot in the Shannons Volante Rosso Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3.

Rounding out the podium, Ryan Wood and Steve Brooks secured third place in the Wolfbrook/MPC Audi R8 LMS EVO II, running a consistent and trouble-free race to finish 16 seconds further back.

Claiming the Am Class honours, Grant Donaldson and Darren Currie converted their class pole to a victory, guiding their 111 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO to a dominant win - finishing 28 seconds ahead of Ben Schoots and Shane Woodman in the Black Wolf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO.

The Pro-Am contest was far from straightforward, with Feeney and Schumacher forced to dig deep to reduce the points gap to current championship leaders Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte.

A chaotic opening lap saw contact between Schutte and Brooks, dropping the Ferrari down the order, while pole-sitter Schumacher ran wide, allowing Talbot to seize the lead. Talbot then surged ahead, building an early gap of almost ten seconds by lap seven.

Behind him, Schumacher and Brooks began to pull clear of a chasing pack led by Renee Gracie in the OnlyFans/Team MPC Audi R8 LMS EVO II, followed by Elliott Schutte, Shane Smollen in the Mach 1 Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, and series debutant Sam Fillmore in the IMS Audi R8 LMS EVO II he shares with Jonny Reid.

Fillmore impressed with a string of decisive overtakes, passing Smollen and Schutte with identical moves on consecutive laps before eventually passing Gracie shortly after.

Once the pit stop cycle concluded, Hunt emerged with a 17-second lead over Feeney and 25 minutes on the clock. But the margin began to shrink rapidly - down to 13 seconds just two minutes later, as Feeney unleashed a string of blistering laps in pursuit.

Further back, the battle for fourth reignited as Damon Leitch guided the OnlyFans Audi past Reid, opening the door for Evans to follow through. Evans then overtook Leitch to move into fourth outright and began chasing down Wood, while Leitch held off Reid to the finish.

With four minutes remaining, Feeney completed his charge - diving down the inside at Turn 1 to seize the lead. From there, he cruised home to a commanding five-second win.

With just one race left in the 2025 season, the title margin stands at 15 points between championship leaders Schutte and Evans in the Ferrari 296 GT3 and the fast-closing Feeney/Schumacher Audi R8 LMS EVO II.

Results are HERE