Smith and De Veth unstoppable in opening 1Hour

Glenn Smith and John de Veth have won the opening 1Hour race for opening race for the 2021 season with John Midgley finishing second outright and 1^st in GT-B and Anthony Leighs finished third outright in his Audi R8.

Conditions were far from ideal at the start of the race were Lochlainn Fitzgerald Symes and Danny Stutterd falling off the track on the opening lap. Glenn Smith was able to pull away from the field with John Midgley, John McIntyre and keeping in arm reach of the lead.

Anthony Leighs was making good progress catching John McIntyre before a spin at the harpin halted further progesstion.

The majority of the field pitted after the halfway mark when Danny Stutterd spun his Porsche 991 Gen 2 at turn 3 causing a safety car however he was able to get going without the assistance from the Marshalls. 

When the race restarted Geoff Short was next to fall victim of the wet weather conditions when he spun his Porsche 997 at the exit of turn 4.

There would be no recovery for Lochlainn Fitzgerald Symes where a tyre blowout caused him to make third pitstop in the dying stages of the race. Symes wasn’t the only one to suffer from tyre punctures as Bruce Kett also had to make unscheduled pit stop and David Rogers was forced to retire from a tyre puncture  

Anthony Leighs was able to pass the 47 AV8 Motorsport Ford Falcon after McIntyre had handed the car over to Brock Timperley and his pace was improving as conditions were drying stages of the race and was catching John Midgley.

However, John de Veth would take the Chequered Flag in first position with Midgley second and Leighs third. John McIntyre and Brock Timperley were fourth overall and first in Class 1. The Porsche 997 of Sean Kirkpatrick and James Webb finished 6^th overall and first in GT-C while the only Class 2 of Rhys Gould driving his Hyundai i30N TCR finished 8^th overall.

1^st 90 John de Veth/Glenn Smith McLaren 650 S GT3 SBT Motorsport

2^nd 19 John Midgley Ford Falcon FG V8 Super Tourer

3^rd 28 Anthony Leighs Audi R8 LMS Ultra GT3 Blackbull Market, Caryle Performance

GT-B

1^st 19 John Midgley Ford Falcon FG V8 Super Tourer

2^nd 20 Kris Bostock Porsche 991 Gen 1 Action Motorsport

3^rd 36 Nick Archibald Holden Commodore VE V8 Super Tourer Food Chain

GT-C

1^st 78 Sean Kirkpatrick/James Webb Porsche 997 Titan Property Group

2^nd 5 Geoff Short Porsche 997 Speedworks Events

3^rd 26 Lochlainn Fitzgerald-Syme Porsche 997 Ultra Interiors

Class 1

1^st 47 Brock Timperley/John McIntyre Ford Falcon AV8 Motorsport, Erosion Control, Branded Beer

2^nd 10 Grant Aitken/Grant Liston Porsche 996

3^rd 351 Bruce Kett Ford Falcon United Oil