Chris Mies on his way to victory at the Phillip Island 101
Nurburgring 24 Hour winner Christopher Mies capitalised on an error from Trass Family Motorsport’s Graeme Smyth in the closing stages to take out the Phillip Island 101.
The #74 Jamec-Pem Racing Audi of Mies and Greg Crick had been in the mix in the early stages but were unable to keep up with Trass Family Motorsport Ferrari of Smyth and Jono Lester, which had dominated the majority of the three hour endurance.
However, a mistake on lap 74 saw Smyth drop to fourth handing the lead to a hard charging Mies, who went on to take the chequered flag.
Defending winners Tony Quinn and Holden Racing Team star Garth Tander trailed the Audi by 1.081s, with Smyth recovering to bring the Ferrari home in third for the New Zealand Trass Family Motorsport squad.
“It was a fantastic job from the team with strategy,” said Crick.
“We’ve got the longest pitstop in the field with our penalty and we honestly didn’t think we could win.
“But we were able to get that time back with the Safety Cars and what a driver Christopher is. He proved just how good he is again today.”
Lester had led from pole up until lap 41 when he handed over the duties to fellow Kiwi Smyth, who continued the team’s strong run building a lead of more than 30 seconds before the Safety Car was introduced for a second time.
Smyth managed to pull out another decent gap over again before a third Safety Car period in the latter stages, caused by an off from the Flying B Bentley of John Bowe and Peter Edwards, put the race in doubt and brought the #74 Audi into play.
The Trass Family Motorsport Ferrari seemed in command of the contest once racing resumed with half an hour of the race remaining but drama struck shortly after the restart when Smyth ran wide gifting the lead to Mies.
Tander applied pressure on Mies in the closing laps but the German managed to hang on to claim victory.
The #88 Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3 of Tony D’Alberto came through to finish fourth ahead of the #36 Erebus Motorsport Mercedes of Geoff Emery and Max Twigg, who slipped back from challenging the podium places in the final third of the race.
There was plenty of drama throughout the race with the Safety Car called on the second lap when the Audi of Dean Koutsoumidis and the Lamborghini of Jan Jinadasa collided.
Contact involving the Ford GT of Kevin Weeks and V8 Supercars driver James Moffat saw them retire early on along with the Dean Canto/Andrew Taplin Aston Martin, which held third in the early running.
Peter Conroy and Michael Hector’s Porsches were involved in a collision which brought out the Safety Car and forced the pair into retirement.
RESULTS: Phillip Island 101
Pos
No
Drivers
Team
Car
Laps
1
74
C.Mies/G.Crick
JAMEC PEM Racing
Audi R8 Ultra
88
2
7
A.Quinn/G.Tander
Darrell Lea
McLaren 650S GT3
88
3
27
J.Lester/G.Smyth
Trass Family Motorsport
Ferrari 458 GT3
88
4
88
T.D’Alberto/G.Denyer
Maranello Motorsport
Ferrari 458 GT3
88
5
36
M.Twigg/G.Emery
Erebus Motorsport
Mercedes Benz AMG SL
88
6
47
J.Koundouris/M.Marshall
Supabarn Supermarkets
Porsche 997 GT3-R
88
7
75
S.McLaughlan/S.Johnson
JAMEC PEM Racing
Audi R8 Ultra
87
8
11
T.Walls/W.Luff
Objective Racing
McLaren 650S GT3
87
9
73
M.Hovey/M.Campbell
HHH Racing/Triffid/ESP
Ginetta G55 GT3
87
10
37
K.Quinn/J.Webb
Darrell Lea
McLaren MP412-C
87
11
6
N.Antunes/R.Salmon
Skwirk/Beechwood Homes
Audi R8 Ultra
86
12
38
G.Taylor/B.Mawer
Adina Apartment Hotels
Audi R8 LMS
86
13
51
Andrew Macpherson
AMAC Motorsport
Porsche 997 GT3-R
86
14
69
T.Koundouris/S.Owen
Supabarn Supermarkets
Porsche 996 GT3-S
86
15
19
M.Griffith/D.Gaunt
Hogs Breath Café
Audi R8 LMS
85
16
33
S.Ellinghham/A.Heimgartner
Fastway Couriers
911 GT3 Cup Porsche
85
17
54
T.Alford/M.O’Connor
Donut King
Lotus Exige Cup R
84
18
63
D.Stutterd/M.Niall
Team FreeM
Lamborghini Gallardo
83
19
55
X.West/A.Jones
Malibu Boats
Porsche GT3 Cup
83
20
80
Peter Edwards/John Bowe
Flying B Racing
Bentley Continental
82
21
68
M.O’Donnell/J.McCorkindale
Thomson Geer Lawyers
911 GT3 Cup Porsche
36
22
12
B.Cook/T.Knight
Walz Group
Porsche GT3 Cup
82
23
93
P.Morris/B.Lynton
MARC Cars Australia
MARC Ford Focus
76
DNF
48
J.McMillan/J.LeBrocq
Interlloy M Motorsport
Reiter Camaro GT3
77
DNF
8
A.Deitz/C.McConville
Maranello Motorsport
Ferrari 458 GT3
67
DNF
14
A.Taplin/D.Canto
Taplin Real Estate
Aston Martin Vantage
62
DNF
71
D.Patterson/S.Richards
DPM Motorsport
Reiter Camaro GT3
61
DNF
46
J.Magro/N.Morcom
johnmagro.com
Lamborghini Gallardo
59
DNF
4
P.Conroy/S.Varney
GT3 Cup Car MY11
49
DNF
53
R.Gartner/M.Hector
SAFE-T-STOP
Porsche GT3 Cup
48
DNF
5
Kevin Weeks/James Moffat
Supaloc Racing
Ford GT 2011 GT3
9
DNF
77
Jan Jinadasa
JJA Consulting Group
Lamborghini LP560-4
2
DNF
2
Dean Koutsoumidis
EVA Racing/Evolve Technik
Audi R8 Ultra
2
VIDEO: Phillip Island 101 winner Christopher Mies
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