Audi Pairing Talbot, Ross Win Race 2 at Bathurst

Photo: Audi

Liam Talbot took his new Coin Spot-sponsored Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo to victory in Friday’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS season finale at Mount Panorama.

Talbot got around the then-leading No. 4 Grove Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Stephen Grove with 20 minutes to go in the 60-minute contest, which featured two safety car periods for accidents on the mountain.

Talbot shared top class honors with co-driver Fraser Ross.

The No. 25 Audi emerged from the mid-race pit stop — which came during the second safety car period — in third and immediately got around the No. 9 Hallmarc Audi of Marc Cini on the restart with 25 minutes to go.

Once in the lead, Talbot held off a hard-charging Brett Hobson in the No. 96 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 for victory.

Hobson claimed top Am honors in the Trophy class, with the father-and-son Grove Porsche dropping to a fourth place overall finish after newly crowned Pro-Am class champion Yasser Shahin’s pass on Stephen Grove with less than ten minutes remaining.

Shahin took the final restart in seventh after an impressive charge from the rear of the grid by co-driver Christopher Mies, who got the Valvoline-sponsored Audi from 15th up to fifth by Lap 4.

Mies was forced to start last after missing Wednesday’s qualifying session due to serving a 72-hour hotel quarantine for the German.

A slower pit stop, due to the car’s 15-second success handicap for winning Race 1, dropped Shahin down the order.

Brad Schumacher, meanwhile, won the Trophy class championship with a seventh place finish.

Three cars were eliminated from the race between two accidents, including a crash for the No. 888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Peter Hackett, which brought out the first yellow.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John