19 Cars For Round Three At The Bend

Round 3 of the Fanatic GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS gets underway at The Bend Motorsport Park this weekend with a field of 19 x GT3 cars set to take to the 4.95km circuit layout.

Entry

Champ 3 Am OK Communication Eric Constantinidis Audi R8 LMS Evo
Champ 7 Am Local Legends Tony Quinn Aston Martin Vantage GT3 2019
Champ 51 Am Imak Kwikmit Andrew Macpherson/ Ben Porter Lamborghini Huracan
Champ 67 Am Forum Group Bill Pappas Audi R8 LMS Evo
Champ 91 Am Canon Foods Arthur Abrahams Audi R8 LMS Evo

Champ 4 Pro/Am Grove Group / Dasher + Fisher Gin Stephen Grove/ Brenton Grove Porsche GT3-R 911-II
Champ 24 Pro/Am Bostik Racing – AFS Logistics Tony Bates/ Dylan O’Keefe Audi R8 LMS Evo
Champ 777 Pro/Am The Bend Motorsport Park / Valvoline Yasser Shahin/ Garth Tander Audi
R8 LMS Evo
Champ 888 Pro/Am Triple Eight Race Engineering – JMR Prince Jefri Ibrahim/ Brock Feeney
Mercedes AMG GT3

Trophy 5 Am Arris Property Developments Greg Taylor Audi R8 LMS Ultra
Trophy 17 Am What do you Meme? Mark Rosser Audi R8 LMS
Trophy 23 Am K.F.C. Matt Stoupas Audi R8 LMS
Trophy 33 Am Perfect Auto Body Vince Muriti Mercedes AMG-GT3
Trophy 38 Am Trading Garage / The Motorists Michael Bailey Aston Martin Vantage GT3 2014
Trophy 55 Am Schumacher Motorsport / Kelso Electrical Brad Schumacher Audi R8 LMS Ultra
Trophy 77 Am Forum Vince Tesoriero Audi R8 LMS Ultra
Trophy 96 Am Hobson Motorsport Brett Hobson Nissan Nismo GT3
Trophy 99 Am Industrie Nick Kelly Mercedes AMG-GT3
Trophy 124 Am K.F.C. Gary Higgon/ Paul Stokell Audi R8 LMS

Headlining the field are Pro/Am leaders Garth Tander and Yasser Shahin in their Audi R8 LMS Evo.

The pair dominated the opening round at Phillip Island, and took another race win at the recent round at Bathurst that ensures the pair a comfortable lead in the four round sprint championship.

Tander and Shahin, along with a number of other GT competitors, enjoyed a test at The Bend’s world-class facility recently, putting them in a better position come the start of the three-day race weekend.

While Tander and Shahin are the runaway leaders, the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes Benz will have the Audi pair in its sights. Prince Jefri Ibrahim will be joined by Brock Feeney in the silver #888 – his third different team-mate in as many rounds. Feeney has been brought in to replace Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen who both have their regular duties in the Supercars Championship to focus on.

Another Supercars driver unable to race is Chaz Mostert, who will be replaced by TCR Australia regular Dylan O’Keeffe alongside Tony Bates in the #24 Bostik Audi.

Mostert and Bates have been a model of consistency so far, with the pair currently equal third on points. O’Keeffe’s strong experience in GT will put Bates in good stead to continue to put the heat on Tander/Shahin and Ibrahim.

O’Keeffe has previous experience in the Audi R8, including starts in the Bathurst 12 hour along with previous GT rounds. More recently, he has accumulated valuable seat time with a ride day and has tested before race weekend in the car.

“I’ve watched Dylan race since he first started in Porsche 944s, and I gave him his first test in a Carrera Cup car,” Bates said.

“Dylan is fast in everything he drives, but he’s also level-headed and provides good technical feedback. I’m looking forward to teaming up with him.”

“It’s always fun teaming up with Tony, and I’m really happy to reunite with him again this year. We’ve got a great rapport and a relationship that goes way back to when I was in Carrera Cup where we were teammates,” O’Keeffe added.

“The Audi R8 is vastly different to the TCR car I’ve been driving this year which really excites me. There’s a lot of power and grip available to you and overall, it’s just a really fast car that I’m looking forward to racing again.”

“The Bend is a track that suits GT machinery very well too, which only makes it more enticing. Tony is in contention for the title, so I’ll do everything I can to help his championship and net a positive result for the team,” O’Keeffe concluded.

In the Amateur class, Tony Quinn has been the man to catch in his Local Legends Aston Martin Vantage. The veteran racer was undefeated at the recent round at Mount Panorama and currently holds a strong 27 point advantage over Andrew MacPherson and Ben Borter’s shared Lamborghini Huracan.

Two new latest-specification Audi R8 LMS EVOs will also form part of the entry at The Bend.

Bill Pappas has upgraded to the new car after competing at Phillip Island in a older model Audi, while Eric Constantinidis will make his national racing debut in the other new Audi entry.

Both cars will be prepared and managed by Melbourne Performance Centre – Audi’s official customer racing team in Australia.

The Melbourne Performance Centre will have nine Audi entries in total for Round 3, including the Pro/Am championship leading R8 of Yasser Shahin and Garth Tander, who will be aiming to improve on their current run that includes three wins from the four races held.

In the GT Trophy Series, the battle is hotly-contested with Brad Schumacher’s Audi and Brett Hobson’s Nissan separated by just 13 points.

The GT field will practice and qualify on Friday, followed by two one hour races both on Saturday and Sunday.

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