Today was the final round of the IVRA GT Sprint from the punishing Mount Panorama circuit in Australia better known as Bathurst.
Let's get to the ending first: The #356 driven by of Ryan Hamilton and Ayden Refaie have taken a commanding win of the Division 3 championship by taking 2nd place in the final round, and the whole team are incredibly proud of their efforts and achievement.
The first foe to overcome for all the drivers here would be the track, which can bite at a moments notice and end a race – often taking a number of cars out behind.
For the #356 drivers there was one aim: finish higher than 5th to secure the division 3 title. With the majority of their seasons results falling well into the top 5 bracket, it would be easy to presume this would be simple, but the track and a bunch of very motivated competitors would do everything they could to upset things.
The #256 and #208 were also looking to work together at an outside chance of grabbing 2nd place in the Division 2 championship and the great prize that came with it.
Qualifying came and went seemingly far faster than the 20 minutes allotted, with the #356 doing exactly what they needed with a class pole, and the #256 sitting in 5th overall and 2nd in class. The #208 had a tougher time and so already the Division 2 plans were unlikely to come off and focus switched to getting a class win.
The first laps came and went without major issue, with the #356 keeping their first position throughout and the field managing to avoid cautions for what is probably longer than most were expecting. Just as talk in the cars went towards saving fuel in case a safety car never came out, it did exactly that and eased those concerns.
From there the #356 continued to do what it needed to, with Ryan handing over to Ayden just after halfway as has happened in all 7 previous races. Ayden of course wanted to hold onto the 1st position for the rest of the race, but a hard charging Nick McLaughlin had other ideas and there was no point in battling something that made no difference to the championship. Ayden tucked in behind Nick and there he stayed until the end, taking the flag in 2nd place in class and securing the title to huge levels of excitement over the team radio.
Ryan and Ayden have worked brilliantly together all season to capitalise on their strengths, minimise the impact of any bad luck and grab a little of their own fortune when it came too, and fully deserve to celebrate and enjoy the achievement and take the experience forwards into future events.
The #256 and #208 had less fortune in the event, with the former suffering hardware failure while fighting for the class win, and the #208 caught up in another cars incident before the first safety car.
