Campbell/Shahin win again, Talbot secures GT crown

Liam Talbot with the help of Christopher Mies has clinched the 2023 GT World Challenge Australia title as Matt Campbell and Yasser Shahin cruised to victory in Adelaide.

With Talbot carrying a 16-point lead over Geoff Emery, the latter faced a must-win scenario and his co-driver Max Hofer did manage to hunt down Mies on the last lap, but this was only for second place.

This meant that although Shahin/Campbell claimed a second win of the weekend to win the round, Talbot/Mies did enough to take out the 2023 GT World Challenge Australia crown.

Am honours were secured by Brad Schumacher who was fourth on the road in a clean 35-minute race around the Adelaide streets with Jayden Ojeda was the only retirement after a late mechanical drama.

After fighting for the win yesterday, Shahin and Talbot resumed their rivalry at the start of race 3.

Talbot got the initial jump in the Audi, but he only led the first 8 corners before Shahin launched a counterattack.

The reigning champion threw his Porsche down the inside and snatched the lead from the championship leader at turn 9.

Despite the well calculated first lap move, Shahin could not shake off Talbot with less than a second splitting them towards the end of their stint.

Behind them the pack had settled down with Geoff Emery a safe third place, while Renee Gracie made a fast start, jumping 4 spots to fourth.

Mike Bailey found early trouble, being rotated at turn 7 but was able to continue.

With 22 minutes to go the leaders dived into the pits nose to tail with just four tenths separating them.

The pro drivers jumped into the hot seat for the run home with 3s difference in the mandatory pit stop times.

Unlike race 1 the positions remained unchanged with Campbell in the #1 Porsche 2s ahead of Mies in the #65 Audi.

But just 10 minutes into the stint Mies had slashed 2.5s out of Campbell’s lead to build a thrilling finale.

Mies was pushing the Audi to its limits and even whacked the wall on the exit of turn 7.

There was also a battle for the Am honours with Schumacher closing the gap to Gracie to less than half a second.

Schumacher made his move to take the class lead and fourth overall with a smart dive at turn 9.

Up front lapped traffic became a massive factor with Mies’ good work being undone when he ran into Darren Currie.

This allowed Campbell to enjoy more than a second lead once again with seven minutes to go.

The moment proved to be decisive as Campbell enjoyed an unchallenged run to the flag with Mies settling for second best.

However, this was enough for Talbot to be crowned GT World Challenge Australia champion.

Image: RACE PROJECT

GT World Challenge race 3 results

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