The 2023 FANATEC GT World Challenge Australia season started last weekend at Bathurst, and Liam Talbot and Max Hofer left the best impression possible at the mountain with dominant wins on Saturday and Sunday in the No. 65 Shannons Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
While the first race started with no problems at the front and the lead staying with the No. 65 Shannons Audi, the No. 888 Triple Eight Mercedes was turned around, leaving Jeffri Ibrahim with a recovery race to do, while the No. 8 MC Labour Audi had to take evasive action to stay in one piece.
Brad Schumacher didn’t measure efforts during the first stint to try to put the No. 55 Schumacher Audi in front, but Liam Talbot had him covered all the time on pace alone, although it wasn’t enough to open a proper gap between the two.
Being a single driver, Schumacher remained in the car and resumed his chase after the pit window, but now the No. 65 in front had recently promoted Max Hofer at the wheel, and despite this being his first visit to Bathurst, Hofer was doing a competent job, pulling out from the No. 55 and leaving Schumacher as prey for the No. 1 EMA Porsche, with Garnet Patterson eventually making the move to second place with 17 minutes to go.
Despite the big chunk of time to work on an attack, Patterson never got the No. 1 closer to the No. 65 Shannons Audi, with Hofer consistently clocking good laps to the finish and to stay with the victory.
GTWC Australia - Bathurst Race 1
Despite dropping to the last overall podium place, Schumacher still captured the GT3 Am class win. Further down the order, the No. 78 Sonic Porsche Cup took the Trophy class win, while the No. 95 Milldun MARC Mustang was the best Invitational class car.
Triple Eight had the front row in Race 2, and stood in control with Jamie Whincup leading Broc Feeney while Max Hofer in the No. 65 Shannons Audi was barely keeping contact with the pair of Mercedes in front. Gaps only stretched in an unchanged order until nearly the end of the pit window as the top-4 followed the strategy of letting the pro drivers have maximum track time for the amateurs to complete the job.
It was in the final 20 minutes that the No. 1 EMA Porsche started to shine with Yasser Shahin as he climbed up to second place, but progress was halted by a drive through penalty due to minimum pit time infringement, which put the No. 65 in second with Liam Talbot on a hard charge. Traffic surely held Jeffri Ibrahim, adding to his already lost time to Talbot, and despite some brave defense, Ibrahim had not much to do to hold the No. 65 as Talbot took his time and outpaced the No. 888 with 2 minutes to go.
From that point to the finish, Talbot simply ran away with the lead to conquer another win for the No. 65 Shannons Audi and complete the weekend sweep while the No. 888 Triple Eight Mercedes had to settle for second.
GTWC Australia - Race 2 results
The No. 55 Schumacher Audi did it again and secured the GT3 Am class win again, with the remaining Saturday winners, the No. 78 Sonic Porsche Cup and the No. 95 Milldun MARC Mustang, also completing the job in the Trophy and Invitational classes with full weekend sweeps.
The next event for GTWC Australia will be at Barbagallo on 29 and 30 April.
PHOTO: Shannons Speedseries
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