Tom McLennan has enjoyed a breakthrough weekend at Queensland Raceway, taking a maiden victory in the Monochrome GT4 Australia Series.
Re-joining Method Motorsport and experienced co-driver Nathan Morcom, it proved a successful round at the Paperclip.
The McLaren Artura GT4 was well suited to the technical layout, and this was shown by McLennan and Morcom across the weekend.
Usually, the two 20-minute qualifying sessions decide the grids for each one-hour race, but this round marked the first three hour race for the category.
This meant the two-part qualifying sessions were combined to create the grid for the opening one hour event, with the finishing positions forming the starting positions for Sunday’s main event.
McLennan set the fastest time in his session on a 1m 12.672s as on combined times he and Morcom lined up pole position.
It was a thrilling opening race as McLennan’s stint was in the second half of the race and he battled George Miedecke in the more powerful Ford Mustang GT4 for the win.
It was an intense dice as contact resulted in Miedecke being spun as the door was closed at Turn 3 leaving McLennan to cross the line first.
Although there was a stewards hearing post-race, McLennan was cleared and celebrated victory alongside Morcom.
Strategy was the key, but it fell in favour of the Mustang team as McLennan and Morcom still took third resulting in a strong points haul in Silver Cup.
The three hour race also saw McLennan break the GT4 lap record, setting a time of 1m13.137s.
Next on McLennan’s agenda is the Paynter Dixon Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Championship supporting the 60th anniversary Sandown 500 on September 13-15.
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Tom McLennan
#24 Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4
“It was a pretty good weekend for me,” said McLennan.
“We started off with a pole on Saturday and converted this into a race win. It was a really tricky race and I think the fans really enjoyed it.
“I was really happy to get the race win and we followed that up by scoring third in the three hour enduro. It was a little bit unfortunate, our opponent got some good fortune on their side, but it is what it is. It was still great fun though.
“Hopefully we can take this momentum into the next GT4 rounds and into Carrera Cup as well.”
