Going fast around the island gave a new perspective to the FANATEC GT World Challenge Australia, as the Philip Island weekend saw the No. 101 Volante Rosso Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo of Jayden Ojeda and Ross Poulakis claim the top on Saturday, but it was the No. 75 JAMEC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 of Geoff Emery and Max Hofer which got the win and the attentions on Sunday, showing that the list of contenders in 2023 might be slightly bigger than what was thought.
Yasser Shahin was decided to take the first place of the No. 65 Shannons Audi of Liam Talbot in Race 1, jumping with the No. 1 EMA Porsche right in front. With the high average speed that Philip Island has, if you can’t pass, at least stay in touch, and that was what Talbot did in the initial moments of the race as he and Shahin have left the rest of the field behind.
A stopped No. 10 Myland Audi brought the Safety Car right before the pit window, and with six minutes of neutralization the drive time strategies became a bit closer with a few exceptions which opted to get in as soon as possible. Having the extra time to serve in the pits didn’t help the No. 65’s cause as it went down to eighth while the No. 1 was still leading.
With 20 minutes to go the No. 6 Wall Lamborghini called it a day and the Safety Car was in again, and when the green flag was waved again, Garnet Patterson still had the No. 1 in front but Jayden Ojeda was at his back in the No. 101 Volante Rosso Mercedes with the No. 4 Grove Porsche joining the party from the back of the field. Ojeda and Grove tried hard to turn the tables in the final minutes, but with similar paces being presented, they had to watch the No. 1 EMA Porsche win with a second off of it, though a post race penalty for overspeeding under Safety Car handed the overall win to the No. 101 car.
GTWC Australia - Philip Island Race 1 results
The No. 45 RAM Motorsport Audi got the Am Cup honors as the No. 55 Schumacher Audi fell over, while further down the field the No. 20 MARC GT won the Invitational class and the No. 181 OnlyFans Audi was the GT3 Trophy winner.
Contenders from Race 1 were the frontrunners of Race 2, and again the No. 1 EMA Porsche was taking advantage with total pressure and tough defense, with Patterson keeping the job from Saturday and leaving only the second place for Jayden Ojeda. Without pace to open the gap, Patterson was almost suffocated by Ojeda during the first stint, and things got worse for the No. 1 as the No. 75 JAMEC Audi was coming with Max Hofer closing down on them.
Gone was the pit window and basically the effort that Patterson did went to the dust due to the extra pit time while the No. 101 also lost time, opening the road for a dominant run of the No. 75 as no one was around Geoff Emery.
Emery was just stretching the gap while Ross Poulakis was slightly going backwards, which allowed the No. 1 EMA Porsche to go to second and then the No. 65 Shannons Audi to get third place, and while Yasser Shahin was closing down the gap to Emery, consuming most of the 11 seconds between them, the No. 1 lacked time to complete the job, which confirmed the victory of the No. 75 JAMEC Audi.
GTWC Australia - Philip Island Race 2 results
The No. 55 Schumacher Audi capitalized in a late drop in form from the No. 23 KFC Audi to win the Am Cup, while the No. 95 MRA MARC won the Invitational class and the No. 181 OnlyFans Audi was the best GT3 Trophy car again.
A break of a month and a half will see the competitors go back on track only on 29 and 30 July, with the Sydney Motorsport Park being the next destination of the series.
PHOTO: Volante Rosso, Shannons SpeedSeries
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