Geoff Emery has secured his third consecutive CAMS Australian GT Championship title after picking up a race win in the season finale at Sandown.
In what ended up being a two horse race in the Championship between he and Peter Hackett, it was Emery who emerged as champion despite Hackett taking out the round win.
It was a solid showing from Hackett as he won the round’s first race, having shown a strong strategy to undercut his opponents and cruise to victory ahead of Emery, who finished fifth.
Hackett was a man with a mission during the second race, leading the race from start to finish ahead of Fraser Ross and Ryan Simpson in second and Liam Talbot in third, while Emery again finished the race in fifth.
Competitors were facing difficult conditions for the season’s final race, but the harsh weather didn’t seem effect Emery as the Audi driver charged through the field to get to second place behind Hackett.
As the race entered its final stages, Emery was putting in much better lap times than the leader and managed to close him down with just three laps remaining, pulling the trigger and passing him with a superb move.
Emery held onto the lead for the final three laps to secure the race victory on top of his well deserved championship win, which he had secured through strong results earlier in the weekend.
“I was praying for rain all weekend,” Emery said post-race.
“To be let off the leash for the last race without having to think about the championship and throw everything at it was great, I had a ball.
“In the end we were fastest in both the dry and the wet, the car was perfect.”
As for Hackett, the Mercedes pilot was happy to finish the year with his second round win.
“It was looking good for a trifecta of wins, but the rain caught us out, in the end Geoff’s strategy to pit early and go for wets was the right choice.” Hackett said.
“We waited because the way the last couple of days had been it could have gone either way. We held on after the stop but just couldn’t hold him out, my tyres were done.
“We had a fantastic season, I can’t thank Eggleston Motorsport enough for their effort. We showed over the final rounds that we had the pace to win, we just need to put the whole season together and I’m sure we can make it happen in 2020.”
While Emery was crowned outright champion, a solid weekend to Dale Paterson saw the popular Camaro GT3 driver secure the AGT Trophy Series title, Nick Karnaros, grabbed top honours in the inaugural Trofeo Challenge category, Justin McMillan and Glen Wood comfortably sealed the GT4 Series.
In line with CAMS upcoming rebrand to Motorsport Australia, the soon-to-be-named Motorsport Australia GT Championship will return in 2020 with a six-round season, beginning in Bathurst on 10-12 April, while the separate Motorsport Australia Endurance Championship begins on 30 January in Bathurst.