PRINCE JEFRI IBRAHIM AND SUPERCARS KING SVG TAKE GT OPENER
The pairing of Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Shane van Gisbergen took out the chequered flag in the opening GT World Challenge Australia race at the Queensland raceway SpeedSeries.
Van Gisbergen emerged in the lead after they had entered the pits in third place, and maintained a 11s advantage from Garth Tander while Fraser Ross came in P3.
Yasser Shahin led away in The Bend Motorsport Audi R8 GT3 from the Matt Stoupas and GT Trophy leader Brad Schumacher as the battle behind started to heat up.
Ibrahim was battling Liam Talbot’s Audi, but ran wide and dropped to ninth exiting Turn 5.
Talbot put a charge on to edge his way into second as he took on Shahin in an intense battle for the lead.
The Audi of Mark Rosser was another to make progress with the South Australian native overtaking Stoupas to not only take the final step on the podium, but the lead in Am Class.
GT Trophy leader Schumacher was comfortably placed just outside the top five as Ibrahim continued to make the position demoting Stoupas to sixth.
The sister entry of Gary Higgon spun out at Turn 1, but was able to keep going, however the race was flagged 20 minutes in as the Audi stopped on track with a mechanical problem.
The safety car period ended at the halfway point and the pit window moved back as a result.
At the front, it turned into a three-way battle as Ibrahim was quickly following the safety car, but it didn’t matter as the Triple Eight Mercedes followed both Shahin and Talbot into the pits.
Van Gisbergen now led by a considerable margin from Ross, Tander and David Reynolds in the Audi.
Tander wasted no time in overtaking Ross as he passed the Audi at Turn four, beginning his pursuit of the 8.3s margin held by van Gisbergen.
In the end, van Gisbergen proved unstoppable to take a 11s victory from Tander and Ross, while Am Class winner Rosser was fourth from Stokell.
P6 belonged to Brad Schumacher, as did victory in the GT Trophy, as a slow leak forced Reynolds to pit, but he racked up several fastest laps which put him in P7 ahead of Peter Hackett in the Mercedes.
GT Trophy competitors Taylor and Kokkinos rounded out the finishers.
- Ibrahim/van Gisbergen
- Shahin/Tander
- Talbot/Ross
- Bates/Reynolds
- Poulakis/Hackett
