Two races, two different GT winners in Sydney

Round 4 of the Fanatic GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS at Sydney Motorsport Park saw Yasser Shahin and Garnet Patterson win the Saturday race and Liam Talbot and Fraser Ross take out Sunday’s.

Talbot led the first of two one-hour races from Shahin when they handed their Audi R8 LMS Evo 2 and Porsche 911 GT3R to Ross and Patterson respectively at the compulsory pit stop.

Richie Stanaway took over the Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG GT3 from Prince Jeffri Ibrahim with a 20s deficit and made inroads on the front runners.

Patterson passed Ross who would later succumb to Stanaway. The latter poured the pressure on Patterson over the last seven minutes as they wound their way through lapped traffic, but the Porsche driver held on for a 0.37s victory.

Ross finished third with Geoff Emery and Max Hofer (Audi) fourth in front of Ross Poulakis and Jayden Ojeda (Mercedes) after an early encounter with the Theo Koundouris Mercedes. Behind the GTPs, seventh placed Matt Stoupas and Paul Stokel (Audi) took out GTA.

They finished ahead of Mike Bailey/Brett Hobson (Mercedes), Brad Schumacher (Audi), and the Mercedes-AMGs piloted by Michel Sheargold/Garth Walden and David Russell/Justin McMillan.

In the Trophy class, Renee Gracie won ahead of Paul Lucchitti, both in Audi R8 LMS Ultras.

Race 2 was off to a frantic start as Hofer was lucky not to have a major accident when he tried to thread his way past the front row.

He had contact with Ojeda who was pushed into contact with Stanaway. Hofer checked up and was hit by Jamie Whincup in the second Triple Eight Mercedes he would hand over to Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim. Hofer escaped with only minor contact with the pit wall.

Meanwhile there was an altercation between Russell and Walden which saw both Mercedes spear off on the outside of Turn 1, causing Stokell to take evasive action. Damage to the left rear of the Stanaway Mercedes would lead to its eventual retirement.

Ojeda led though to the pit stops and handed the lead to Poulakis. Hofer’s stop would have an additional 5s penalty added before Emery could rejoin. Ibrahim was third from Talbot who with superior pace was able to pass those in front and win by over 16s.

Behind Poulakis, Ibrahim held off Emery by less than a second as Shanin finished fifth ahead of GTA victor Schumacher. A lap down came Sergio Pires/Marcel Zalloua (Audi), Bailey/Hobson, Stoupas/Stokel and Loundouris. Trophy again went to Gracie over Lucchitti.

The next round of the series takes place at Queensland Raceway as part of Round 5 of the Shannons SpeedSeries on August 11-13.