Mies/Crick take out dramatic GT Island 101

Chris Mies on his way to victory at the Phillip Island 101

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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