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Joey Mawson came away pleased with his competitive debut in a GT3 car at the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.
The open-wheel star combined with Nick Percat and Mark Rosser in the Team BRM Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II at the Mount Panorama enduro.
Percat led the race in the early stages with a fierce run up the order as he and Mawson flexed their pace in tricky conditions.
That was until the first major setback just over three hours in when the #17 Audi had to be wheeled into the garage to fix the rain light.
Having returned to the track Rosser narrowly missed a major incident after the halfway mark at Forrest’s Elbow, dodging a stricken car on the road.
Brake issues further compounded he, Percat and Mawson’s race with an eighth outright result at the chequered flag, seven laps off the lead lap.
“That last stint I think we were fifth on pace overall possibly; for me today the most important thing was keeping the car clean and having no incidents on my debut,” Mawson told Speedcafe.com.
“If we had speed that was always going to be a bonus and we had speed so overall it’s been a really good debut for me.
“This is probably the biggest race I’ve done, I’m with the big boys and some guys that I look up to like van Giz and Chaz [Shane van Gisbergen and Chaz Mostert].
“So it was really cool to be racing with them and to have a really good run as well.”
It came after a crash in practice for the Team BRM Audi which damaged all four corners on the car and saw the entry miss qualifying.
“Particularly after what happened on Friday, if you told us we would get to the point where we were leading the race we would have definitely signed up for that,” added Mawson.
“Overall, very happy with the work Team BRM did particularly after the difficult moments we had, just really pleased with the whole weekend.”
Pleased with his GT racing debut, the S5000 Australia champion said while there is nothing locked in just yet, he is open to any more opportunities in GT3 machinery.
“I love driving the GT because it suits me, it’s much more close to a single seater,” Mawson enthused.
“I’ve only had this planned but of course I have been driving with Mark Rosser so I don’t know if that could potentially lead to more drives with him in GT.
“For now I’m just finishing off the season in S5000 and obviously I’m trying to make it to Supercars, that’s my goal. I think the plan for that is either doing enduro drives or Super2.”
The next round for the 2022 S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship is at Sydney Motorsport Park from May 27-29.
