GT4 Australia Round 5

Sydney Motorsport Park

Published on Sunday, 20th of September 2026

After the long haul to Darwin for round 4, the awesome MR GT4 crew were pretty happy to have a slightly easier trip to Sydney Motorsport Park for round 5!

We had tested both BMW M4 Evos at SMP a few weeks earlier, so Jay and Nathan were heading into the weekend with plenty of fresh knowledge and looking forward to putting it to good use. With a massive 31-car field across Silver, Silver-Am and Am, it was always going to be one of the toughest GT4 weekends of the season.

Sydney Motorsport Park is a proper drivers circuit with high-speed corners, plenty of tyre degradation and a lot of traffic to manage, so it was another great opportunity for both our pilots to continue their development.

McElrea Racing crew at Sydney Motorsport Park 2026

Jay Murray #7

Silver Class

Erik Pender

Shaun Simpson

P10

Jay had a challenging first qualifying session and ended up 20th outright, but showed a lot more of his true speed in qualifying for race 2 with a great lap to put the Slattery BMW 7th on the grid.

Race 1 was another important learning experience. Starting in the middle of a huge field meant there was plenty going on around him from the first lap and Jay steadily worked his way forward. With the lead cars and Silver-Am runners all fighting hard around him, he kept the car clean and progressed to 12th outright by the flag.

Race 2 was much more representative of the speed Jay had shown during the weekend. Starting 7th outright, he ran with the leading group and drove another really mature race against drivers and combinations with vastly more experience. Jay eventually crossed the line 7th outright and was the next car home behind the winning Silver-Am Mustang, capping off another very impressive weekend for the 17-year-old.

Jay Murray #7 racing at Sydney Motorsport Park 2026

Nathan Murray #5

Am Class

Erik Pender

Rob Clark

Nathan’s focus coming into Sydney was much the same as Darwin - continuing to improve how quickly he switches on at the beginning of each session and getting closer to his best lap times earlier in the race.

Qualifying 1 was difficult in the very busy 31-car field and Nathan lined up 27th outright for race 1. Once the racing started he again showed that his race pace is stronger than the qualifying result suggested, working on consistency and managing both the traffic and tyres around a circuit where passing GT4 cars is never easy. Nathan made another useful step forward in qualifying for race 2, improving his lap time significantly and moving up to 23rd outright on the grid.

In Sunday’s race he continued to build his confidence and pace, eventually bringing the Morris BMW home 25th outright. While the result itself wasn’t what we were chasing, Nathan’s speed and consistency continue to head in the right direction and the gap to the front-running Am cars keeps getting smaller.

Nathan Murray #5 racing at Sydney Motorsport Park 2026

Summary

Another very productive GT4 weekend for the Morris/Slatterys/MT crew, even if we didn’t bring home the silverware this time.

Jay continues to amaze us with how quickly he is learning. After a tough first qualifying session he reset, put the car 7th outright for Sunday and then raced it home in the same position. With several factory-level and highly experienced GT drivers around him, that was another seriously impressive performance from a kid still in his first full season of car racing.

Nathan also continued his steady improvement. Sydney is one of the tougher circuits for a gentleman driver in these cars, particularly with 31 cars circulating and such a big variation in driver experience. His qualifying improvement between the two sessions was encouraging and, like Darwin, there were periods during the races where his lap times showed he is continuing to close the gap to the established Am front runners.

No trophies this weekend, but both cars straight, two drivers continuing to improve and plenty more data in the bank. The final GT4 Australia round for the Morris/Slattery team is at Sandown at the end of October. One more crack at the podium before the end of the season!