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There was a controversial finish to the second one-hour race of Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia. Ultimately it was won by Liam Talbot and Garth Tander in their Shannons Audi R8 LMS Evo 2 after the former had late race contact with the Triple 8 Mercedes AMG driven by Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim.
Talbot was given a 15s penalty but even after the penalty was applied the pair still had 1.8s on second-placed Geoff Emery and Max Hofer in the Jamec Racing Audi. However, Emery and Hofer took the round overall ahead of Talbot/Tander, with Prince Abu Bakar and Jamie Whincup third.
Whincup started from pole position after Prince Abu Bakar had topped the Ams’ Shootout earlier and led from the start. Hofer was second and followed by Broc Feeney (Mercedes), Tander, Garnett Patterson (Porsche 911 GT3R) and Jayden Ojeda (Mercedes).
The scheduled pit stops, which the front runners all took together, shook the leaderboard somewhat, although Price Abu Bakar emerged first. Talbot was able to jump ahead of Emery, who also lost out to Prince Jeffri Ibrahim, in for Freeney, and Ross Poulakis, now in the Mercedes that Ojeda started in.
Talbot put the pressure on Prince Abu Bakar numerous times during the race before it came to a head at Turn 6 on Lap 41 of the 48-lap duration. There was contact in the corner, and the Mercedes was spun. The Prince was able to extract the car from the gravel trap but shortly after lost second place to Emery.
Poulakis passed Prince Jeffri for fourth, while Yassar Shahin brought the lone Porsche home in fifth position. Brad Schumacher was 13th when he did the mandatory pitstop, and in his second leg was able to climb to seventh.
Then came Mike Bailey/Brett Hobson (Mercedes), Matt Stoupas/Paul Stokell, Ash Samadi and Sergio Pires/Marcel Zalloua, all in Audis. Behind Michael Sheargold/Garth Walden (Mercedes) were the Invitation class winners Geoff Taunton and Dan Jilesen in the MARC II Mustang, while Renne Gracie again took the Trophy class in her Audi.
