16 Cars For The Bend as BRM Adds Third Audi

A total of 16 cars will contest this weekend’s second round of the GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS season at The Bend Motorsport Park, boosted by an additional Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II entry from Team BRM.

Released on Tuesday, the entry list for the two one-hour races at the South Australian venue features 13 cars vying for overall Pro-Am honors and a trio of Trophy class entries for older cars, with no takers for the Am division this time.

Along with the 15 cars that took part in the opening round at Phillip Island last month, the entry is bolstered by the No. 666 BRM Audi, which is to be shared by Monochrome GT4 Australia graduate JP Drake and his mentor Garnet Patterson.

Drake, who won back-to-back Australia Prototype series crowns in 2022-23, is making his GT3 debut, while current European Le Mans Series racer Patterson returns to GTWC Australia for the first time since the 2023 campaign.

Elsewhere in the BRM stable, Thomas Randle has been confirmed for a second outing in the Castrol-backed No. 268 Audi alongside Mark Rosser, whose regular co-driver Alex Peroni is still recovering from the injuries that ruled him out of Phillip Island.

However, Peroni is expected to return to action for the Queensland round in June.

The only other change to the entry from Phillip Island concerns the No. 14 Volante Rosso Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3, as Ben Porter joins Alex Gardner for his first outing with the team since the car’s debut at Queensland in 2024.

Porter is a regular of the GTWC Asia series, where he campaigns a Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo in the Am class alongside Andrew Macpherson.

Both the Tigani Mercedes-AMG piloted by the Koundouris Brothers, which was withdrawn from the Phillip Island opener due to damage from a testing crash, and the second Arise Racing GT Ferrari continue to be absent.

Official practice at The Bend begins on Friday, with a pair of qualifying sessions and the first race following on Saturday and the second race on Sunday.