Fast Eddy Dominates at Phillip Island and takes GT Championship Lead

Penfold Audi Sport driver Mark Eddy has taken all before him by winning race one and finishing second in race two to win Round five of the Vodka O Australian GT Championship at Phillip Island Sunday afternoon.Eddy's results not only landed him on the top step of the podium, but also the honour of winning the CAMS Tourist Trophy, etching his name amongst the greats of GT racing.

"I could not have asked for a better weekend for the Penfold Audi Sport Team, the R8 LMS performed faultlessly as did the team and to take home the TT Trophy is simply the icing on what's been a very sweet cake," said Eddy"For my name to be amongst the greats like Moss, Matich, Geoghegan and Stillwell is very humbling, and I as an individual and the team don't take it lightly."Winner of race two and second for the round was a very happy Peter Hackett aboard his Team Erebus Racing SLS AMG Mercedes."The win in race two is the first for the AMG SLS in the southern hemisphere, so it's a great thrill for me and the team," said Hackett."2011 is continuing to be a great learning experience for us, and the data we were able to pickup out of the car this weekend will all go into the info bank for an all out Championship assault in 2012."Greg Crick driving the JEEP sponsored Dodge Viper had a consistent day with both a fourth and third position placing him third overall for the round."We had the speed all weekend, but the Viper is really hard on its tyres, so all we could do was minimise wheel spin, and try to keep the pace up and its ended in some pretty good results."Challenge Class competitors John Modystach, and Jonny Reid driving the Prosurv Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Car had a faultless weekend placing the car on pole and winning both races in a brilliant GT debut."You couldn't get a better result than this weekend for Prosurv Racing," said Modystach."Having Jonny in the car gave me some great feedback, and the McElrea team prepped the car to perfection and I can't wait for the next round in Bathurst."Team V.I.P. Petfood Racing endured a torrid weekend with former Championship leader Klark Quinn being forced to share a car with his father Tony, after his own Mosler had engine failure in qualifying.

Although the team featured on the podium in race one, race two was a different story as the Aston Martin suffered a terminal diff issue retiring the car halfway through the race.

Ash Samadi put in the drive of the round when a mechanical issue put him out of race one, resulting in a rear of grid start for race two, but the New South Wales based driver sliced through the field to finish a very credible fourth position in the Mosler MT900.Kevin Weeks and Josh Hunt were excluded from the result of race two when the Supaloc Racing Team was found in breach of the tyre warming rules, and the Lotus Exige GT3 of Bart Mawer and Angelo Lazaris failed to start race two after the car suffered gearbox failure.

Tim Poulton's Lotus also suffered engine failure in Race 2, and the Flack Brothers Porsche retired mid race with tyre failure and rear inner guard damage while leading the Challenge class.With the failure of Quinn's Mosler and the subsequent retirement of the V.I.P. Aston Martin means that Quinn now plummets two places to third in the Championship while the consistent form of Eddy now sees him leading the Vodka O Australian GT Championship by 18 points over the Viper of Greg Crick.The field will now prepare their cars for round six of the Vodka O Australian Championship to be held at Mount Panorama, Bathurst on the 6-9th of October.

A big field of cars is expected to take to the Mountain in the penultimate round of the Championship in just over four weeks.Coverage of round five of the Vodka O Australian GT Championship from Phillip Island can been seen on the ONE HD Network on Sunday the 25th of September at 12.00pm (check your local guides)

The Vodka O Australian GT Championship is a National motor racing series pitting some of the world's most exotic and exciting race cars against each other in a mix of sprint and endurance race formats on some of Australia's most challenging circuits including Mt Panorama Bathurst, the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit and the Adelaide Parklands street circuit for the Clipsal 500