Summer Rintoule secures first win of the season at The Bend

Summer Rintoule made history and secured her first win in the Monochrome GT4 Australia championship, becoming the first woman to win in the series after claiming victory in the second race of the weekend at The Bend, in only her fourth start after switching to the McLaren Artura GT4 platform.

Photo credits: Jack Martin Photography

Summer Rintoule made history and secured her first win in the Monochrome GT4 Australia championship, becoming the first woman to win in the series.

Rintoule and her teammate Jarred Hughes claimed victory in the second race of the weekend at The Bend, second round of the Australian GT4 championship, in only their fourth start after switching to the McLaren Artura GT4 platform.

The duo had achieved a top ten in the silver class as a weekend's best at Phillip-Island to open their season last time out, following a really strong 2025 campaign, where they finishing third in the Silver class standings with six podiums. The victory had always been elusive, until the latest round at The Bend, where Rintoule made history thanks to a flawless strategy.

Just in time for the start of the first race of the GT4 Australia race weekend at The Bend, the weather took a turn for the worse. As the cars headed to the grid, fog rolled in and a light drizzle began. Before the actual race even started, this turned into heavy rain, leaving the track thoroughly soaked for the entire duration of the event. Following a mixed qualifying session, Hughes started the McLaren from 21st place overall, 13th in the Silver Class.

Right from the tight start, Hughes managed to overtake Camilleri, a rival in his own class, as well as several competitors from other classes. Consequently, after just one lap, he has already climbed to 17th place overall. However, he did not stop his charge there: over the next few minutes, he continued to fight his way up the order, overtaking cars from other classes and closing the gap to White.

Within a total of just 12 minutes, Hughes had successfully passed him as well. Furthermore, since several Silver Class teams had pitted early due to the weather conditions, Hughes now found himself sitting in 9th place in the Silver Class.

Shortly after the pit stop window opened, a Ford and a Porsche collided in the circuit's infield; the Porsche came to a halt off-track and required recovery. This incident triggered the Safety Car period. Since the pit stop window was already open at the time, it remained open during the Safety Car phase. It was a circumstance that virtually every team took advantage of: Hughes, too, pitted and handed the car over to Summer Rintoule, who rejoined the race in 12th place overall and 6th in the Silver Class.

At the restart, 16 minutes remained on the clock. Rintoule had to quickly adapt to the difficult conditions and the nature of the circuit itself also made for a challenge. Following a minor error, she lost some ground and dropped back to 16th place overall, 10th in the Silver Class. She however continued to defend her position over the subsequent laps.

Ultimately, she settled in 23rd place overall, holding onto 10th place in the Silver Class. Gradually, alongside her class rival Canto, she managed to work her way past several of the slower classes.

With eight minutes remaining on the clock, Canto found a way past Rintoule and a lap later, she briefly managed to counter-attack - at which point Lawrence also slipped past her. Nevertheless, toward the end of the race, Rintoule finally got the better of Canto as he dropped to the back of the field, hampered by technical issues.

Photo credits: Jack Martin Photography

For the second race, the weather looked significantly better, and Rintoule’s starting position was also an improvement over the first race. Although her 14th-place starting spot within her class was further back than in the first heat, her 17th-place overall ranking placed her much closer to her direct rivals.

Right from the start, she managed to close the gap to her competitors by gaining two overall positions. This placed her right behind Canto once again, and a fierce battle ensued between the two. However, this duel took its toll, allowing the chasing pack to catch up and eventually costing some positions overall. After 10 minutes, Keyte and Lawrence got by, followed by Harvey and Nirwan.

Rintoule however quickly regained her pace, however, and managed to overtake Nirwan once again. Yet, as is so often the case when two drivers are locked in a heated battle, a third party reaped the rewards: Quinn took advantage of the duel to slip past both.

Once again, dramatic events unfolded just as the pit-stop window opened: the Tufflift Racing McLaren rolls to a halt in the grass, while the Method Motorsport Artura of Sorensen limped back to the pits with damage.

The Safety Car was therefore deployed to facilitate the recovery operations. Since it was already evident that this would be a prolonged Safety Car period, the pit lane was opened for stops under yellow flag conditions once again. The driver change from Rintoule to Hughes was executed with exceptional speed - without, however, falling short of the minimum mandatory pit stop duration.

Consequently, at the restart, with just under 20 minutes remaining, Hughes found himself in third place overall and firmly on course for a class victory. Into Turn 1, Hughes had to defend hard against the chasing pack, but he was then able to outbrake the Toyota ahead of him to claim second place.

Hughes subsequently spent several laps pressuring the overall leader, D’Alberto’s Ford. He maintained this pressure for approximately five minutes before launching his decisive strike. Into Turn 17, he executed an aggressive dive-bomb maneuver on the Ford, pushing the limits but remaining within the bounds of fair play, and executed the move with precision and confidence, thereby securing not only the class lead but also the overall lead.

In the process, D’Alberto lost momentum and was subsequently overtaken by McBride’s Toyota. With the Ford and Toyota now locked in a fierce duel for second place, Hughes was able to extend his lead. After just a few laps, he held a comfortable four-second advantage over the Toyota. Hughes never relinquished that lead during the final minutes; together with Rintoule, he would cross the finish line to claim victory, securing not only the Silver Class win but also the overall success.

In one month, the season continues at the Liqui Moly GT Festival Queensland. Following their strong result in the latest round, the team will do everything in ist power to improve upon their sixth-place standing in the championship.