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The Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia title fight has tightened after Max Hofer and Geoff Emery won the opening race of Round 5 at Queensland Raceway.
Emery started the one-hour race from third in the Jamec Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo 2 and held his place behind Liam Talbot (Audi) and Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim (Triple Eight Mercedes AMG) before he took his compulsory pitstop and handed over to Hofer.
Hofer led from there and controlled the race to win by 10.4s. The second half of the race saw Garnett Patterson (in the Porsche 911 GT3R in which Yassar Shahin started) hold off the relentless pursuit from Jamie Whincup, who took over after Ibrahim pitted.
In their wake and with a great view was Garth Tander in the Talbot Audi. He finished almost 10s ahead of the Volante Rosso Motorsport Mercedes shared by Ros Poulakis and Jayden Ojeda.
The latter led home Broc Feeney in the second of the Triple Eight AMGs he took over from Prince Jeffri Ibrahim. Feeney was closing in at the end.
The Am class was taken out by the Audi driven by Matt Stoupas and Paul Stokell, which finished seventh outright. Brad Schumacher was leading until he spun on the exit of the final corner, and hit the pit wall before spearing back across the track.
Stokell placed in front of Mike Bailey/Brett Hobson (Mercedes). Ninth and first in the Invitational class was Geoff Taunton/Dan Jilesen (MARC GT), while Micheal Sheargold/Garth Walden (Mercedes) rounded out the top 10.
The GT3 Trophy class was won by Renee Gracie (Audi) in 14th outright, the result enough for her to clinch the Trophy championship after Paul Lucchitti retired his Audi early.
Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia will begin on Sunday with its first-ever Top Ten Shootout at 11:40 am before the second one-hour begins at 2:10 pm and will be live on Stan Sport.
