They will team up for the second round in the Audi R8 LMS Evo II that finished third outright at the Bathurst 12 Hour with Kelvin van der Linde, Christopher Haase and Liam Talbot. It will be prepared by the Melbourne Performance Centre.

While it will be Brook’s first GT3 race in Australia in what will be his first visit to The Bend, he has competed in NZ’s South Island Endurance Series and other GT enduro, exclusively in Audi R8s.

“I love the Audi. I think out of all the GT3 models the Audi is really good value for money and in my opinion outperform the other brands. The Audi here in New Zealand is consistently first or second in those conditions, so it’s part of the reason I’ll jump into one of those in Australia,” Brooks said.

“I’m looking forward to checking out the facility, it’s an amazing venue and it’s been done well, plus the museum is pretty cool I hear. I’m looking forward to working with Nick, studying his data and seeing how we can improve.”

McBride has competed in the Carrera Cup championship since 2014 and has finished fourth overall in 2016, 2017 and 2019. This year he is racing in Porsche Carrera Cup with Melbourne Performance Centre, and that association was the incentive for him to partner up with Brooks.

“I’ve never been around The Bend short track, and I’ve never driven a GT3 car before, so this will be an all-new experience and a great chance to try something a little different,” admitted an enthusiastic McBride.

“I watched the opening round from Phillip Island on the television and I had some serious FOMO. It looked like so much fun.

“The GT3 races are really interesting, with AMs starting one day and the Pros the next day. I love the team aspect of it. We don’t get that so much in Carrera Cup. We are generally out there in Sprint races, so it will be cool to team up with someone else and have the team make an impact in the races.

“I have no idea what to expect. It will be a huge learning curve, but I’m just going in with eyes wide open.”

The second round of Fanatec GT Australia powered by AWS will be held on The Bend’s West circuit on May 31-June 2, with a one-hour race on both Saturday and Sunday.

All races will be live and free on 7mate and streamed on 7plus. International viewers, including New Zealanders, can watch via the GT World YouTube channel.