Liam Talbot says the opportunity to work with both Chaz Mostert and Adam De Borre together at this weekend’s Bathurst 12 Hour is an ‘amazing’ opportunity.
Talbot is sharing the Coinspot Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with Fraser Ross and Mostert for the Intercontinental GT Challenge season-opener.
They will also have Mostert’s Supercars engineer De Borre in their corner, with the car run under the Melbourne Performance Centre banner.
While the Talbot/Ross/Mostert combination is relatively fresh as a trio ,Talbot has enjoyed success with them both separately in Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS.
“[I] raced with Chaz a couple of weeks ago, we got a race win on debut at Phillip Island and raced at Bathurst in December with Fraser and got a race win there,” Talbot told Speedcafe.com.
“We’ve got good momentum and I think we’ve got a really good team; add in Chaz’s engineer Adam De Borre and it’s an amazing combination.
“It’s interesting because normally the Audis are very sorted with the set up because they have been running for years but the Evo pack is brand-new, we’ve only had one race weekend.
“So having Chaz’s experience in Supercars and also Adam De Borre’s it’s great to bring this outside thinking to try and tune the car.”
The decision to have Pro-Am reclassified as the top GT3 class at this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour offers a rare opportunity that we might not ever see again.
Due to the lack of international entries with clashing dates, all professional line-ups were axed making way for Pro-Am to be the outright class.
Per the driver categorisation rules, a Class A (GT3) Pro-Am entry of three drivers must consist of two Platinum-, Gold-, or Silver-rated drivers and one Bronze-rated driver.
Four driver combinations must consist of two Platinum-, Gold-, or Silver-rated drivers and two Bronze-rated drivers.
This guarantees that one way or another an Am-rated driver will be part of the outright race-winning squad, something that seemed far-fetched in 2020 when 21 all-pro line-ups showed up.
Talbot is one of those Bronze-rated drivers taking part this weekend who are well aware of the potential for outright success.
“I’m super excited, [in] 2017 when all pros were allowed at the 12 Hour and we got a fourth outright result which felt like a huge achievement at the time in an Am class car,” he added.
“I felt like that was the best result I could ever get considering it was a field that had all-pro line-ups.
“Now that it’s a Pro-Am event this year I feel like its a cool and amazing opportunity to potentially get an outright win which would be an amazing achievement.”
A total of 15 GT3 cars will take to the track this weekend, all of which have a realistic shot at victory, with 12 of those making up Class A Pro-Am and three in Class A Am.
Practice for the Bathurst 12 Hour begins on Friday at 10:05 local time/AEST.
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