If the No. 1 EMA Racing Porsche 992 GT3R didn’t make a mighty defense to win Race 1, the Sydney Motorsport Park weekend of FANATEC GT World Challenge Australia would go in favor of the No. 65 Shannons Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, which still got Race 2 honors to crown the effort.
The No. 65 Shannons Audi kept the lead from pole in Race 1 and Liam Talbot’s priority was to shut off any opportunities that Yasser Shahin would find to attack him, although the No. 1 EMA Porsche remained within a second of the leader.
Shahin tried to keep himself all over the No. 65 but he eventually lost ground for most of his stint, leaving Gareth Patterson with the task of chasing Fraser Rossr and re-establish the No. 1 in the fight, and the result was better than expected as Patterson was glued on Ross, disturbing the line of the No. 65 and passing it on the inside of Turn 2 with more than 20 minutes to go.
This time it was the No. 1 leaving the No. 65 behind but Ross had it worse as his pace couldn’t cope with an approaching Ritchie Stanaway as the No. 888 Triple Eight Mercedes, easily took second place and was lapping quicker than everybody around, which would be concerning for Patterson.
The Mercedes grille was getting bigger in the No. 1 EMA Porsche’s mirrors, and the final three minutes were of pure defensive work from Patterson as he even used the heavy traffic ahead to cover himself from Stanaway, who was denied of the win by mere 0.364 seconds.
GTWC Australia - Sydney Race 1 results
The No. 23 KFC Audi took GT3 Am Cup honors as the No. 55 Schumacher Audi got stuck battling the traffic that was holding the overall leaders, while the No. 181 OnlyFans Audi took the GT3 Trophy win with a big margin over the No. 66 Realta Audi.
For Race 2, we had doors banged, cars driven to the wall and to the grass, punctures and a bit more, but Jayden Ojeda was decided to keep the No. 101 Harrolds Mercedes in front of the No. 88 Triple Eight Mercedes, which also lost second place to the No. 75 JAMEC Audi before hitting 15 minutes of racing.
Ojeda indeed did his job and held Max Hofer during his stint, delivering the No. 101 to Ross Poulakis to possibly complete the service, but he didn’t count with Liam Talbot coming from fifth and lapping five seconds faster to fight for the lead, disposing the No. 75 with 10 minutes to go and quickly catching the leader.
Talbot was so much faster in the No. 65 Shannons Audi that it didn’t take a full minute to claim the top spot from Poulakis, and with the seven minutes that remained, he left everybody behind to win by more than 15 seconds ahead of the No. 101 Harrods Mercedes.
GTWC Australia - Sydney Race 2 results
The No. 55 Schumacher Audi won the GT3 Am Cup as Brad Schumacher had no opposition during the whole race, while the No. 181 OnlyFans Audi completed the GT3 Trophy sweep in similar fashion.
The action returns at Queensland, with the penultimate weekend of the season set for 12 and 13 August.
PHOTOS: SRO
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