Tom Hayman has walked away from round 2 of the Monochrome GT4 Series as Championship leader after a successful weekend at the Shell V-Power Motorsport circuit.
The young gun and his teammate Marcos Flack came out firing for Friday’s practice sessions, finishing fifth and 1st respectively.
The duo continued the speed into Saturday, where it mattered most and qualified in fifth and pole; setting themselves up well ahead of the races.
An impressive first place finish for Saturday’s race 1 gave the Method Motorsport crew bragging rights, which followed into Sunday’s race 2 with another podium and second place finish.
Hayman reviews the weekend:
“It was a huge weekend!” declared Hayman.
“We had a good start to the weekend, the car rolled out pretty fast. It was obviously quite wet in the few of the practice sessions which made it difficult to get a good read. But we tried to use what we had previously learnt to give us a good qualifying car. However, with the cold conditions, we struggled to turn the tyre on a lot with such a light car.
“We qualified 5th for race 1 and then we left the warm tyres on for my qualifying session as they were back-to-back qualifying sessions, and I was able to put it on pole. So, that was an awesome achievement for me, and I’m glad I gave the team a good result.
“We went into race 1 from there and we started off fifth and we were running quite strong – around 2nd or 3rd and as the pit window opened, we pitted for driver change. The car felt mega while I was in it and I’m so pleased that we were able to bring it home for a race win.
“It was awesome for the team to get that result, after it went begging at Phillip Island, so it was a big relief.
“We were confident heading into race 2. We started alongside the Mustang which is very difficult to drag off the line so, we dropped back to third in the opening laps and struggled to get past the Porsche (our teammate), and so we made the call to sit comfortably behind them.
“My stint was tough. A Safety Car ended up coming out halfway through and I ended up running my stint a bit longer than we had originally planned towards the end of pit window. So, I was able to get some clean air and open up a good gap to the other cars. We had that extra 15seconds in our pit stop that we carried over from the day before, which was a bit tough – but we ended up working with it and managed to come away with second place!
“The mustang received a rule breach on Saturday, so that put us in the Championship lead.
“Can’t wait to head to Queensland Raceway in just over a month’s time and heading there in the Championship lead is even better.
“A big thanks to all of my sponsors and supporters for your continued support. It means a lot and I wouldn’t be here without you all.”
The Monochrome GT4 Australia next head to Queensland Raceway for round 3, August 2 – 4.
Results
Friday 31st May
Practice 1 – 5th
Practice 2 – 1st
Saturday 1st June
Qualifying (Race 1) – 5th
Qualifying (Race 2) – 1st
Race 1 – 1st
Sunday 2nd June
Race 2 – 2nd