A solid opening stint from Liam Talbot put him and Maximillian Hofer in the box seat to take out the first race in the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS round one at Bathurst this afternoon.
The Shannons Insurance Audi R8 LMS Evo driver pairing won the one-hour 26-lap race by 6.9s over Yasser Shahin and Garnett Patterson in the EMA Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R.
Third place went to Bathurst local Brad Schumacher who did the event on his own aboard his Kelso Electrical Audi and led for two laps during the pitstop cycles.
Fourth place went to Jamec Racing with Geoff Emery returning to the series after a hiatus and joined on this occasion by Christer Joens in an Audi.
Prince Jefri Abu Bakar Ibrahim was running tenth in his stint before handing the Triple 8 Mercedes AMG GT3 over to Jamie Whincup who brought the car home in fifth place.
Next on the road were teammates Broc Feeney and Prince Jefri Ibrahim.
The latter was turned around at the first corner on the first lap, but they fought through to finish sixth ahead of Matt Stoupas and Paul Stokell (Audi) with Feeney setting the fastest lap of the race at 2:03.669s.
Ross Poulakis and Sam Brabham were set for a fourth place finish but a second stop to replace a tyre dropped their Mercedes to eighth and the last car on the lead lap.
In ninth position was Marcos Flack (Porsche 991.2 Cup Car) in the first of the GT Trophy class, ahead of Marcel Zalloua and Sergio Pires (Audi). Then followed Ash Samadi (Audi) who was lucky to not be bunkered when he avoided the spun Ibrahim Mercedes on the first lap.
The Mercedes of Garth Walden and Michael Sheargold was another to pit twice and was twelfth ahead of the Invitational class winner Geoff Taunton in his MARC II V8.
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