New Audi Entry for Kiwi Pair McBride, Brooks

New Zealanders Nick McBride and Steve Brooks will race an additional Melbourne Performance Centre-entered Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II in this weekend’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS round at The Bend.

Brooks and McBride will tackle the South Australia venue at the wheel of the same MPC Audi that Christopher Haase, Kelvin van der Linde and Liam Talbot took to third place overall in the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour.

Porsche Carrera Cup Australia regular McBride, who drives for MPC in the one-make series, will be making his first GT3 start.

“I’m really excited for the opportunity and a new challenge driving an Audi R8 GT3 at The Bend this weekend,” said McBride.

“I’ve never been around The Bend short track, and I’ve never driven a GT3 car before, so this will be an all-new experience and a great chance to try something a little different.

“I have no idea what to expect. It will be a huge learning curve, but I’m just going in with eyes wide open.”

Brooks meanwhile has experience of the R8 LMS GT3 from his exploits in the New Zealand-based South Island Endurance Series as well as the Highlands 6 Hour and Bathurst 6 Hour, but is new to The Bend.

“I love the Audi,” he commented. “I think out of all the GT3 models the Audi is really good value for money and in my opinion outperforms the other brands.

“The Audi here in New Zealand is consistently first or second in those conditions, so it’s part of the reason I’ll jump into one of those in Australia.

“I’m looking forward to working with Nick, studying his data and seeing how we can improve.”