Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti have become the first team to win two GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS races in 2026 after taking out Sunday’s race of round two at The Bend.
Behind the wheel of the Move My Wheels by Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3, Ojeda and Lucchitti both produced remarkable stints to complete a lights-out-to-chequered-flag victory.
Providing the biggest challenge to the winners were reigning champions Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher who guided their #1 Kelso Electrical / Team MPC Audi R8 LMS EVO II to second place, while fellow Audi R8 LMS EVO II drivers Thomas Randle and Mark Rosser of Castrol Team BRM rounded out the podium.
In what was a fairly straightforward outing, the most drama occurred on the opening lap when Gartnett Patterson’s Team BRM Audi R8 had contact with teammate Ryan Wood in the Team BRM / Wolfbrook Motorsport Audi R8, who had made up two spots off the line.
As a result of the contact between the two, Patterson was turned around and tumbled down the order - eventually being forced into pit lane, while Wood dropped behind Randle in fourth but remained ahead of Oscar Targett in the #56 Kollosche AMG by Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Oscar Targett.
The rest of the field managed to have a clean getaway as Ojeda led yesterday’s winner Brendon Leitch in the Geyer Valmont Racing by Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Feeney through the opening laps, with Randle closely behind.
There was little trouble to occur for the rest of the stint for the Pro drivers as the top five remained unchanged by the time they made it to the pit stops.
As Lucchitti then came out with the lead given to him by Ojeda, he was followed out by Schumacher in second place and Wood’s teammate Steve Brooks in their Audi while Shane Smollen in the #56 Audi R8 snuck in front of Rosser in the pit lane to slot into fourth place.
Relentless pressure from Rosser saw the South Australian pass Smollen shortly after coming out on track before eventually making the pass on Brooks for third place.
Ahead of them, Schumacher managed to close down Lucchitti after coming out a few seconds behind, and while he did get agonisingly close to stealing the lead within the last 10 minutes, some robust defending from the #66 Mercedes-AMG GT3 kept the positions the same.
For the rest of the race, Schumacher stayed within one second of Lucchitti but never truly got the opportunity to pass again as the latter steered the Mercedes-AMG to top spot.
Rosser ultimately came home in third almost 20 seconds behind the front two, with Brooks a couple of seconds behind.
Although Smollen looked set to finish inside the top five, ARGT’s Elliott Schutte managed to make a last gasp pass in his Ferrari 296 GT3 on the final lap to steal fifth place and bank solid points for him and teammate Jaxon Evans.
In the Trophy Class, KFC / Team MPC’s Matthew Stoupas and Paul Stokell completed a clean sweep of victories at The Bend as they took out top honours in Race 2, beating Volante Rosso Motorsport’s Alex Gardner and Ben Porter by a few seconds, while Luke Youlden and Nathan Halstead finished third more than one minute ahead.
GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS now looks towards round three of the 2026 season, which takes place at Queensland Raceway on 12-14 June as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries’ GT Festival Queensland.