Drivers across multiple international categories and disciplines of motorsport put their collective skills on display over the weekend, yielding a wide range of results overseas.
GT World Challenge America – Indianapolis
Kenny Habul has claimed the GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Independent Cup title, following an inspired performance alongside step-in co-drivers Will Power and Chaz Mostert at the Indianapolis 8 Hour.
Mostert and Power, both played a strong role in practice, qualifying and ultimately the storm-hit race in the #75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO for 75 Express.
The race, won by the trio of Kelvin van der Linde, Valentino Rossi and Charles Weerts for Team WRT BMW, featured a lengthy red flag stoppage due to severe weather.
Undeterred, Mostert, two-time Bathurst 12 Hour winner Habul and IndyCar star Will Power finished sixth, with Habul claiming class honours and the Independent Cup title.
Tom Sargent, the fourth Aussie to compete in the race, jumped into the driver’s seat third alongside GMG Racing teammates Kyle Washington and Klaus Bachler driving the Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Sargent and his team finished the race outright in 14th and seventh in the Pro-Am class.
Junior WRC – Central European Rally
In a dramatic end to the FIA Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) season, Taylor Gill fell less than two seconds shy of winning his class in the Central European Rally and the junior world title, after leading the event with just one stage to go.
Eventual winner, Sweden’s Mille Johansson, trailed Gill and navigator Daniel Brkic by seven seconds as the final stage got underway, but outpaced the Australian by 8.6 seconds to win the rally and therefore the Championship.
It followed on from overnight leader Ali Türkkan crashing out on the penultimate stage, which in-turn propelled Gill to the top spot and set up the final stage showdown between Gill and Johansson.
The result was Johansson’s first rally win of 2025, yet his performances over 41 special stages across five events, more than any other driver, was decisive in finishing the year on 133 points, ahead of Gill on 122 and Türkiye’s Türkkan on 69.
Gill completes his campaign with two JWRC wins under his belt, after victories at Rally Sweden and Rally Portugal.
GT World Challenge Asia – Beijing
Four Australians were present for the season finale of the GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS calendar, with Jayden Ojeda, William Porter, Andrew Macpherson and Liam Talbot all in attendance for the two-race weekend.
The Aussie pairing of Porter and Macpherson got off to an encouraging weekend in Qualifying 1, securing pole position in the Am class and Talbot following closely behind in second with a 1:51.007 lap. Meanwhile, Ojeda and Craft-Bamboo Racing teammate Qi Cao finished with the sixth fastest Pro-Am time in the session.
In Qualifying 2, the results heavily swing towards Ojeda and Cao, who not only secured the fastest time in Pro-Am, but also outright, leading all drivers with a fastest lap of 1:43.336. Porter and Macpherson would have to start from the back of the grid in Race 2 after clocking a 1:52.059 in the second qualifying session, and Talbot again finishing in second among Am classmates with a 1:47.758.
Race results yielded a mixed bag of results, with Talbot securing a ninth outright finish and an Am class win in Race 1, Porter and Macpherson finishing just outside the class podium in the Am placings, and a a ninth place Pro-Am class finish for Ojeda.
In the final session of the weekend in Race 2, Macpherson and Porter reversed their fortunes with a class win, while Ojeda and Cao were not classified after retiring from the session after 11 laps. Talbot finished 16th outright and second in class behind Macpherson and Porter.
Formula One – Circuit of the Americas
Oscar Piastri bounced back from a Turn 1 crash with McLaren teammate Lando Norris in Saturday’s Sprint Race which resulted in a DNF, by getting back into the points after a fifth place finish in the United States Grand Prix Feature Race.
Starting from sixth on the grid, Piastri secured 10 Championship points from the race after finishing fifth, however, Max Verstappen and Norris’ one-two finish has reduced Piastri’s lead in the Drivers Championship. It was Verstappen’s third Grand Prix win in his last four, as he continues to ascend in form in the back half of the season.
Verstappen is now 40 points behind Piastri, while Norris is only 14 points behind Piastri in the standings with five rounds remaining as well as two more sprint races. Next up will be the Mexican Grand Prix taking place this coming weekend, before the run to the season finale across Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
GB3 Championship – Monza
Alex Ninovic’s title-winning season in the GB3 Championship is officially over, after the campaign concluded its final round of the year at Monza, Italy from 18-19 October.
It was a perfect start to the weekend for the now-reigning Champion, securing pole position in Qualifying 1 ahead of compatriot Patrick Heuzenroeder and Gianmarco Pradel, who clocked the fourth fastest lap. Ninovic doubled his efforts to claim pole position in Qualifying 2, but this time shared the front row with Noah Lisle, the fourth Aussie competing in GB3 this year. Heuzenroder rounded out the top three.
Rodin Motorsport’s Ninovic claimed victory in the first race of the weekend at Monza, surviving race long pressure from Heuzenroeder to take his ninth win of the season. Ninovic led from start to finish in a restarted contest, but Heuzenroeder kept him to within half a second for the majority of the race, only for Ninovic to streak clear in the final two laps to win by 1.613 seconds. Pradel passed Deagen Fairclough for third around the outside of the first part of the Ascari chicane on the penultimate lap to complete an all-Australian podium.
In Race 2, Ninovic finished second in a race featuring multiple safety car appearances and frantic racing between the leading contenders. Ninovic and front row starter Noah Lisle went wheel to wheel and took to the run off area at turn one with Fairclough, while Patrick Heuzenroeder and Reza Seewooruthun tangled at the exit with both eliminated on the spot and the safety car deployed. In the end, Ninovic settled for runner-up, Pradel ran his way up to third and Lisle trickled down to 16th after an incident with Lucas Fluxa mid-race while Heuzenroeder received the DNF.
In the final race of the season, Heuzenroeder secured fifth place in the reverse order race, enough to give the Australian the runner-up spot in the final Championship standings. Pradel finished the session in third to get the bottom step of the podium, Ninovic placed sixth and Lisle squeezed inside the top 10 in ninth.
Ninovic’s dominant year finished with 524 Championship points, followed by Heuzenroeder on 376 points. Pradel would conclude the year in fourth with 364 points and Lisle also finishing inside the top 10 with 287 points for seventh.
European Le Mans Series – Portimao
The European Le Mans Series travelled to the city of Portimao, Portugal where James Allen, Griffin Peebles and Garnett Patterson hit the track for the final time of the season.
Starting from fourth on the grid among LMP2 Pro-Am cars, Allen and the Nielsen Racing team ultimately had a good day overall.
Getting out to a good start, Allen and teammates John Falb and Sergio Sette Camara stuck with the front pack of LMP2 drivers, putting them in a good position to stay near the top of the race order.
As the final laps of the race approached, Mathias Beche was leading the LMP2 Pro/Am category, with the #99 AO by TF Oreca of Louis Deletraz keeping pace, but in a championship winning position.
Deletraz kept pace with Beche until the chequered flag to claim the LMP2 Pro-Am title for AO by TF and Mathias Beche taking the first win of the season for TDS Racing. The #27 Nielsen Racing Oreca, featuring Allen, crossed the line to take the final class podium position and end the year on a positive.
It was anything but a straight-forward start for Peebles and his team’s race in LMP3, with the #12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine D09 tapped into a spin at T3 of the first lap. However, first driver and Peebles’ teammate Torsten Kratz was able to rejoin the race and continue the session. Peebles would finish the race in ninth.
Garnett Patterson was having a good run in the #23 United Autosports McLaren 720S, battling with Tom Fleming in the #86 GR Racing Ferrari and Sarah Bovy in the #85 Iron Dames Porsche for the minor class podium places. Patterson and the team would manage a runner-up finish, following a clean run as the second driver for United Autosports in the LMGT3 category.
Le Mans Cup – Portimao
Another weekend involving multiple duties for Griffin Peebles took place in Portugal as he also took part in the season finale of the Le Mans Cup in Portimao with Team Championship on the line.
Peebles and Rinaldi Racing teammate Sam Parrow finished qualifying in 13th with a time of 1:42.919 in the #66 Ligier JS P325, putting them in the middle of the pack to start the main race.
Opening the race, Parrow got the #66 Rinaldi Racing in a position where Peebles would be fighting for the LMP3 Pro-Am teams title. Peebles then moved one point ahead of Motorsport98 in the standings with 20 minutes to go, spurring on Gillian Henrion to bring the #98 Ligier home in second place, ahead of Peebles.
With Peebles taking third and securing the title for Rinaldi Racing and the drivers title for Parrow, a post-race penalty dropped the race-winning #34 Inter Europol Competition car to 4th, which in-turn then gave the win and the championship title to the Motorsport98 crew on a points adjustment. Peebles and Parrow were crowned Vice Champions following the reclassification.
TCR World Tour – Inje
Josh Buchan was just the second Australian driver to win a TCR World Tour race at the latest stop in Inje, two years after Will Brown scored a double win in Sydney. At the wheel of his HMO Customer Racing Hyundai Elantra N, the 2024 and 2025 TCR Australia series winner led the field from lights out to the chequered flag, winning by a margin of nearly six seconds.
Buchan followed up that performance with a ninth and a sixth in the second and third races respectively, rounding out a solid weekend in Korea. Meanwhile, it was a weekend of consistency for Ryan MacMillan, finishing 12th in Race 1, Race 2 and Race 3 in what was just his second event of the season.
Two more rounds remain in the season for both drivers, who head to Zhuzhou International Circuit for three races from 31 October to 2 November. Macau hosts the final round of the season and finishes the year in the middle of next month. Buchan currently sits 11th in the Drivers’ Standings with 110 points, 10 positions up from MacMillan’s 17 points.
International GT Open – Monza
Jayden Kelly’s debut International GT Open campaign came to a less-than-ideal close, after an incident at turn one forced the Australian, and British teammate Josh Rattican, to retire after four laps of racing.
There was no cause for concern for Kelly prior to the main session, after getting through both Free Practice sessions unscathed and then securing a Class pole and third-quickest lap outright in qualifying for Greystone GT.
Following the formation lap behind the safety car, Kelly would be spun out at the first corner of the Variante Chicane. Kelly, as the opening driver, would carry on further for few further laps, but came into the pits shortly after.
Newcomers to International GT Open, Kelly and Rattican had secured points in each of their first four outings at the Red Bull Ring and Circuit de Barcelona, two of which were podiums, prior to Monza (18 points in each round).
