Brett Hobson has taken a dramatic overall victory in Race 1 of the GT World Challenge Australia round at The Bend Motorsport Park. The Trophy-Class runner in the #96 Hobson Motorsport Nissan GTR was the class of the field, making the correct call when to change tyres in a trying day for the strategists.
Despite a safety car wiping out a 20 second lead before the pit stop window, Hobson took victory by over 50 seconds, putting those below 5th place a lap down.
The overall podium was completed by Garth Tander and Yasser Shahin’s #777 The Bend Motorsport Park Audi, who took the position from the #24 Bostik Audi of Dylan O’Keefe and Tony Bates late on in the piece.
The race started with the apparent threat of rain but a clear dry line from the earlier session, encouraging a large proportion of the field to start on wet tyres. Pole-sitter Yasser Shahin used the wet side of the straight to great effect, taking the holeshot into turn 1, ahead of Stephen Grove’s #4 Porsche, also on wets.
As the track continued to dry, the #96 Nissan GTR started to come to the fore, with Hobson passing both Brad Schumacher in the #55 Schumacher Motorsport Audi and then Stephen Grove on the same lap, before hunting down the #777 The Bend Motorsport Park Audi of Yasser Shahin, and taking the lead.
From there, Hobson was able to stretch a significant advantage, while the Pro-Am runners who started down the order began to cut through the field. Prince Jefri Ibrahim in the #888 Triple 8 Race Engineering AMG continuing his good form, making his way up to second on slick tyres, while Tony Bates in the #24 Bostik Audi R8 LMS Evo got into the top 5.
But the big mover was out front; Hobson out to a 20 second lead before Ibrahim finally started to reel in the Nissan, with Tony Quinn’s #7 Local Legends Aston Martin Vantage completing the top 3, while also leading the Am class.
A spin through turn 18 for the #3 OK Communication Audi R8 of Eric Constantinidis brought out the safety car with 10 minutes before the pit window. Despite this, Triple 8 elected to bring the #888 AMG in and change on to wet tyres, dropping them from second and putting Tony Quinn’s #7 Aston Martin into second place, and the #17 Mark Rosser What Do You Meme Audi R8 into third.
On the restart it was Rosser who made the early move, slotting into second place, but Hobson was again on the mark, and stretched his lead as the pit window opened.
Most of the field pit early, looking to get the Pro driver in. However, only two teams elected to change tyres; The #777 The Bend Motorsport Park Audi moving to wets, and the #4 Grove Racing Porsche to slicks.
Hobson, Quinn and Rosser on the other hand stayed out to the end of the window, which ended up being perfectly timed as the rain that had threatened finally came down with 25 minutes left. Hobson swapping onto wets, and emerging over 40 seconds ahead of Ben Porter, who had stayed on slicks in the #51 Imak Kwikmit Lamborghini Huracan he shares with Andrew MacPherson.
As the rain got heavier, the pro-drivers on wet tyres made inroads through the field; Dylan O’Keefe and Garth Tander found their way through to second and third respectively, with only 5 minutes left. Tander, on the fresher rubber, made a commanding move into turn 1, before O’Keefe attempted to respond through turn three. The two cars made contact, with O’Keefe’s #24 Bostik Audi coming off second best, spinning to the inside, while the #777 The Bend Motorsport Park Audi was able to continue.
It mattered not to Brett Hobson, who stretched out a 50 second lead at the flag, taking an incredible overall win for the Trophy-Class machine. Tander and Shahin took Pro-Am honours, making it 4 Pro-Am wins out of 5 so far this season, and O’Keefe and Tony Bates recovered to come home third.
Despite dropping away late in the race, MacPherson and Porter won the Am Class in the #51 Lamborghini Huracan, after their closest challenger, Tony Quinn in the #7 Local Legends Aston Martin, pitted late for wet tyres.
Action for round 3 of the GT World Challenge Australia continues tomorrow, with Race 2 at 10:00am Local time (UTC+9:30).
