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Thrilling, sensational, competitive: all perfectly apt describing words to use when discussing the events of last weekend’s third round of the 2005 Speed Energy Drink Australian GT Championship and Porsche Drivers Challenge contested over three races and in perfect conditions at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway.

After an unbelievable sequence of races, Peter Hackett came out on top in each of the three 10 lap encounters at the 3.9km circuit, holding off a plethora of flying automotive exotica in each of the three races to add further to his commanding series lead in the increasingly competitive GT Category. Forced to run with 1500 less revs thanks to a recent review of series parity, Hackett stole a march on the field in race one to win – ahead of series newcomer David Stevens - by seven tenths of a second after a race long dice that also featured spirited performances from Washington, Mark Eddy and Ian Palmer at the front of the field.

Race two had more of the same, a race long battle of the wits with Washington culminating in a win by another narrow margin – six tenths separating the pair after 10 hard fought laps. However, if the opening two races were spectacular, the third was incredible. Hackett held off a four-car freight train that included Washington, Ian Palmer’s Honda NSX and David Steven’s Porsche in a thrilling display of competitive GT racing. Hackett and Washington went toe to toe on each lap, even enduring a coming together into turn four that slightly damaged the side of the Lambo. Washington threw everything at the black Diablo, finishing just half a second behind at the line after an incredible race. “What a race, what a weekend,” enthused an elated Hackett at the end of a perfect day at Eastern Creek. “The racing was incredible and the battle with Bryce was fantastic in each of the races today. Obviously I’m disappointed to have damaged someone else’s – and very expensive – car, but these results are fantastic and really quite surprising considering we only had the parity changes made very recently.”

Washington consolidated his strong position at the top of the Australian Porsche Drivers Challenge tree, two seconds and a third a good result for the South Australian driver, who this round proved he is definitely one of the stars of Australian Motorsports future with his stirring drive in the third and final race. Strong performances all weekend from David Stevens in the Brennan IT Porsche 911 GT2 also indicated that he will be a key player in coming rounds, the car utilising its awesome horsepower to out drag Ian Palmer’s Honda in a race for third to the line – just one 100th of a second splitting the pair after both featured strongly in the final race’s intense competition.

Thrilling, sensational, competitive: all perfectly apt describing words to use when discussing the events of last weekend’s third round of the Australian GT Championship and Porsche Drivers Challenge contested over three races and in near perfect conditions at the Eastern Creek Raceway