Weekly Racing Roundup (8.14.23)

Title Rivals Talbot, Hofer Take a Win Each at Queensland

Liam Talbot overcame a 15-second penalty to take victory in the second Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS race at Queensland Raceway after contact with Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim.

Talbot, who shared the No. 65 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with Garth Tander, tagged Ibrahim’s No. 88 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo into a spin at Turn 6 with six minutes remaining on the clock.

The Audi driver was then given a 15-second penalty for the infraction while holding a lead of 14,5 seconds to the No. 75 Jamec Racing Audi piloted by Geoff Emery with three laps remaining.

Talbot stretched out his lead just enough to claim the win, as he was classified 1.849 seconds ahead of Emery and co-driver Max Hofer.

Hofer experienced a wild opening phase to the race, banging doors with Tander on the first lap before pressuring the No. 88 Mercedes of Jamie Whincup in a battle that saw the Austrian driver running wide out of Turn 1 and bouncing across the grass.

The No. 75 Audi then dropped from second to fifth during the round of mandatory pitstops, but Emery moved back up to third place when the No. 888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes and Harrolds Volante Rosso Motorsport driver Ross Poulakis both went off the road at Turn 1.

Emery then also made his way past a recovering No. 88 machine to finish second as Ibrahim and Whincup completed the podium ahead of Poulakis and Jayden Ojeda and the No. 888 car driven by Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Broc Feeney.

The opening race of the weekend went the way of Jamec Racing duo Emery and Hofer.

A strong closing stint from the Audi factory driver took the No. 75 machine across the line with a gap of 10.467 seconds over the No. 1 EMA Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R of Yasser Shahin and Garnet Patterson.

Hofer now trails Talbot by two points in the Pro-Am standings, with the season set to conclude at the VAILO Adelaide 500 on Nov. 23-26.

RESULTS: Queensland Raceway

News & Notes

***DTM will continue the recently introduced Track Safari session at its upcoming Lausitzring event. First trialed at the Nürburgring, fans will be able to purchase tickets to board buses, which will go out on track alongside the cars in a session separate from Free Practice. A similar ‘circuit safari’ was held at last year’s FIA World Endurance Championship event at Fuji.

***Chevrolet brought the NASCAR Garage 56 Next Gen Camaro ZL1 that finished this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans to the IndyCar/NASCAR double header event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Hendrick Motorsports-operated machine was on display at the Chevrolet stand, still dirty from its appearance in the French endurance classic.

***A new exhibit displaying several historically significant Corvette racing cars has opened at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, CA. Titled “Corvettes in Competition: Racing America’s Sports Car,” the exhibit features more than ten cars including the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R that took GTLM class victories in the 2015 Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. The exhibit remains open until August 25, 2024.

***Inter Europol Competition employees surprised team founder and CEO Wojciech Smiechowski with a replica of the Fiat 126p rally car that he drove at the start of his driving career. The car, homologated to Group A specification, has been fitted with the livery used by Smiechowski in the Polish Rally Championship during the 1980s.

On this weekend: Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS, Pirelli GT4 America, GT America powered by AWS (Road America), DTM (Lausitzring), Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS (Okayama)