 | |
| Category | Sports car racing |
|---|---|
| Country |  Australia |
| Inaugural season | 1960 |
| Drivers | 49 |
| Tyre suppliers | Pirelli |
| Drivers' champion | Liam TalbotChaz Mostert |
| Teams' champion | Melbourne Performace Center |
| Official website | www |
 Current season | |
TheGT World Challenge Australia, formerly known as theAustralian GT Championship, is aMotorsport Australia-sanctioned national title for drivers of GT cars, held annually from 1960 to 1963, from 1982 to 1985 and from 2005. Each championship up to and including the 1963 title was contested over a single race and those after that year over a series of races. The categories which have contested the championship have not always been well defined and often have become a home for cars orphaned by category collapse or a sudden change in regulation.
As of 2024, the series uses the internationalGT3 rules.
For 2025, the GT World Challenge will be the headline category of a national race series organised by the category promoters,SRO Motorsports Group.[1]
In the first era the championship races were open to closed roof cars (not necessarily production based) complying with CAMS Appendix K regulations. Appendix K catered for modified productionGrand Touring cars (such asLotus Elite),sports cars (such asJaguar D-Type) fitted with roofs, specials (such as the CentaurWaggott) and touring cars modified beyond the limits of the then currentAppendix J regulations. Numbers dropped rapidly away as the years went on and both the category and the championship were discontinued at the end of 1963.
From 1976 to 1981 theAustralian Sports Car Championship had been contested byGroup D Production Sports Cars. The re-introduction ofGroup A Sports Cars in 1982 saw Group D needing a new home. The Australian GT Championship was re-introduced as a home for both Group D and Group B Sports Sedans of theAustralian Sports Sedan Championship (ASSC). The category was something of a hybrid with European racing cars, American IMSA racers and wide variety of Australian Sports Sedans competing together. One major difference between the Sports Sedans and GT cars was that the Sports Sedans were restricted to 10" wheels where as the GT cars were allowed up to 18" of rubber. Although many of the top V8 sports sedans had similar power to the GT cars, the difference in rubber on the road saw the GT cars able to get their power to the ground much more efficiently and also go much faster through the turns.
Porsche 935's dominated early with1980Formula One World ChampionAlan Jones winning the1982 Championship in an entry backed by former race driverAlan Hamilton's Porsche Cars Australia (Hamilton was Australia's major Porsche distributor at the time). Porsche won again in1983, this time withRusty French driving the 1982 title winning car he had acquired from Hamilton, while both the1984 and1985 championships were won byAllan Grice andBryan Thomson respectively, both driving the ex-Bob Jane DeKonChevrolet Monza with a 6.0 LV8 engine that produced a reported 600 bhp (447 kW; 608 PS), with Thomson also driving his exoticChevrolet V8 powered twin turboMercedes-Benz 450 SLC in the 1985 series. The Thomson Mercedes was alleged to produce over 1,000 bhp (746 kW; 1,014 PS) making it arguably the most powerful race car in Australian motor racing. The downside though was that without a large budget, the Thompson Mercedes suffered numerous reliability problems (usually turbo) and neither Thompson nor his team driver (1985–86)Brad Jones, or indeedJohn Bowe who had also driven the car in the early 1980s while Thompson was in a short lived retirement, were able to show its true potential.
As time went on the usually slower Sports Sedans started to usurp the category as the more expensive Sports Car refugees dropped in numbers. Sports Sedans also became more effective, especially once local racing car factories and professional racing teams like theAdelaide basedElfin Sports Cars and K&A Engineering, and top leveltouring car teams such asAlan Browne's Re-Car team and former ASSCFrank Gardner'sJPS Team BMW became involved. As with Appendix K of the 1960s, grids were widely varied with turbocharged Porsche 935s,BMW 318is, 5.0 and 6.0 litreV8 powered Chevrolet Monzas,Holden Commodores,Alfa Romeo Alfettas, Thomson's lone Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC, Peter Fitzgerald'snon-turboPorsche Carrera RSR, a couple ofV12Jaguar XJS' and with a variety of sports sedans such as theHolden Monaro andHolden Torana,Ford Falcon andFord Escort, and various turbochargedToyotas,Nissans andMazda RX-7s.
By 1985 the field was mostly Sports Sedans bolstered with recently obsolete (from the end of 1984)Group C Touring Cars and the championship was run concurrently with theAustralian Sports Car Championship. Veteran driverKevin Bartlett introduced a very quickGround effectsDe Tomaso Pantera in 1985 which brought some much needed spice to the GT category.
For 1986 Sports Sedans went their own way. Within a couple of years Porsche drivers had their own series with the Porsche Cup.
.jpg)
.jpg)
The Australian GT Championship was revived a second time in 2005 after the disbandment of theAustralian Nations Cup Championship. Most of the competing 2004 cars remained eligible for 2005, although the controversialHolden Monaro 427C's which had won the twoBathurst 24 Hour races in2002 and2003 were a notable exception. This was because the Monaros under Nations Cup rules had been permitted to use the 7.0 litre, 427 cuiLS6 Chevrolet V8 engine that had been used successfully in theChevrolet Corvette C5-R, while the road going CV8 Monaros only came with the 5.7-litreGen III V8. The Australian Porsche Drivers Challenge (the former Australian Porsche Cup) also was merged into the GT Championship.
The FIA GT3 regulations, like those in use in theFIA GT3 European Championship was the core of the new series. The series vehicles reflected GT3, Porsches, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, the controversial Mosler, although series regulations usually specified cars be two-three years old to cut down on costs. Competing drivers are seeded and penalised so as not to flood the series with professional drivers from other categories and increasing there has been an emphasis on longer races, sometimes allowing for more than one driver per car.
The series has grown steadily, helped by the transition of theBathurst 12 Hour race from a production car race to a GT race. Manufacturers have diversified widely from its mostly Porsche base and in addition to the 12 Hour has also seen the creation of other long-distance races, thePhillip Island 101 and theHighlands 101 in New Zealand.
The Australian GT Trophy Series was introduced as a support series in 2016, featuring older-specification GT3, GT4, Challenge andMARC cars. GT4 cars will be integrated into the main championship in 2018.
In 2020,Australian Racing Group andSRO Motorsports Group jointly took over management of the category, renamed it "GT World Challenge Australia" in alignment with their otherSRO GT3 categories around the world, and ran events as part of the ARG-runSpeedSeries event series.[2] SRO took over as exclusive organiser of the series for 2024 series.[2] In 2024, the main World Challenge category became exclusively forSRO GT3 spec cars, with a separate set of races for GT4 known asGT4 Australia.
For 2025, with the end of the SpeedSeries, SRO Motorsports Group will run its own event weekends for the GT World Challenge Australia, with support categories includingGT4 Australia andRadical Cup Australia.[3]
Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit (2005–2019, 2021–present)
Sydney Motorsport Park (2005–2015, 2018, 2020, 2023–present)
Queensland Raceway (2005–2007, 2013, 2016–2017, 2022–present)Sandown Raceway (1983–1984, 2007–2008, 2010–2011, 2014–2020, 2022, 2025)
The Bend Motorsport Park (2018–2019, 2021–2022, 2024–present)
Hampton Downs Motorsport Park (2016–2018, 2025)Adelaide International Raceway (1982–1985)Albert Park Circuit (2008–2010, 2016–2019)
Baskerville Raceway (1982)Calder Park Raceway (1963, 1982–1985)Highlands Motorsport Park (2013–2016)Homebush Street Circuit (2009, 2012)Lakeside International Raceway (1962, 1982–1985)Mallala Motor Sport Park (2006)Mount Panorama Circuit (1960, 2006–2007, 2009–2011, 2013, 2019–2024)Oran Park Raceway (1982, 1985, 2006–2007)Reid Park Street Circuit (2011, 2014–2017)Adelaide Street Circuit (2007–2013, 2015–2017, 2022–2023)Surfers Paradise International Raceway (1982–1985)Surfers Paradise Street Circuit (2012, 2019)Symmons Plains Raceway (1982, 2007)Wakefield Park (2005–2006, 2017)
Wanneroo Raceway (1982, 2016–2017, 2019, 2023)Warwick Farm Raceway (1961)Winton Motor Raceway (1982–1985, 2011–2012, 2016–2017)| Wins | Driver | Years |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Klark Quinn | 2012, 2013, 2016 |
| Geoff Emery | 2017, 2018, 2019 | |
| 2 | David Wall | 2009, 2010 |
| Mark Eddy | 2008, 2011 |
| Wins | Manufacturer | Years |
|---|---|---|
| 8 |  Audi | 2011, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 |
| 7 | Porsche | 1982, 1983, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 |
| 2 |  Jaguar | 1961, 1963 |
 Chevrolet | 1984, 19851 | |
| Mercedes-Benz | 19851, 2014 |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)