Mostert and Talbot clinch GT World Challenge Australia title

Third in the race result was enough to secure the title over Will Brown and Brad Schumacher in their Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS Evo II.

The Pro-Am title win at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International was the second in a row for Talbot who won the 2023 title in an MPC Audi.

“It is pretty special to start a team [Arise Racing] and get this result,” said Mostert.

The MPC Audi driven by Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles was the pacesetter. Leitch grabbed the lead at the start and handed over to Miles who kept the front running after the CPS handover. However they also incurred a pit infringement penalty which in their case was a drive through.

First across the line was the Arise Racing sister car with Elliot Schutte at the wheel after Jaxon Evans started. But a five-second pit infringement penalty dropped them to fourth.

Behind Schutte, one second covered the top three places in an exciting finish. Alex Peroni and Mark Rosser (Team BRM) headed the trio to win the race from Declan Fraser and Peter Hackett (Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes AMG GT3) and Talbot/Mostert.

Fifth place was taken out by Renee Gracie and Paul Stokell (MPC Audi) in front of Brown/Schumacher, and Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti (Tigani Motorsport Mercedes) who finished just in front of Brenton and Stephen Grove (Grove Racing Mercedes).

Leitch and Miles recovered to finish ninth ahead of Sergio Pires (Tigani Audi) who again won the AM class. He finished ahead of the class champions Garth Walden and Michael Sheargold (GWR Mercedes).

The Trophy class win went to Stephen Coe (Ferrari 458) after rivals Valentino Astuti and Liam Dunn retired their Aston Martin Vantage earlier in the one-hour race. The only other DNF was the Ash Samadi AM Audi which spun and backed into the concrete wall at the Grate and that triggered an early safety car.