Bates races to victory in Adelaide

A stunning drive from Tony Bates has seen the Eggleston Motorsport driver storm to his maiden CAMS Australian GT Championship race victory.

Bates moved to the head of the field in the Moveitnet/AFS Mercedes-AMG GT3 following his compulsory pit stop, holding the advantage to the flag to win from a hard-charging Roger Lago.

“It’s a bit surreal,” Bates beamed after the race. “We only put the deal together in the last day or two.

“It’s all come together quickly but I’ve really gelled with the team, they’re fantastic.

“We chipped away yesterday,” Bates added. “We were way off the pace in the first session and by the last session we were fairly quick.”

Bates, who will now start from pole position for Race 2 tomorrow morning, is looking forward to the challenge.

“It will be nice to get some clear air tomorrow and hold off the charging pros! That’s what I love about this category, it’s a bag of mixed lollies; there’s just so many variables.

“It’s just about driving consistently and hitting your markers; you can’t control what happens in and around you and we got out of it on the right side today, it’s excellent!”

Pole-sitter Kelvin van der Linde had skipped away to an early lead before the safety car was called after four laps when Nathan Antunes lost control of the GT Motorsport Audi R8 LMS.

Having lowered the lap record in the early stages of the race, van der Linde’s lead was eliminated in an instant before the young South African was handed a drive-through penalty for weaving behind the safety car.

It saw the Valvoline Audi R8 LMS trundle down pit lane, dropping down the order and sparking a highly entertaining recovery drive.

Emerging on track behind Steve Richards’ BMW Team SRM M6 GT3, the pair became embroiled in a thrilling battle as van der Linde turned up the heat on the experienced Richards.

The veteran however didn’t put a foot wrong, and kept van der Linde at bay until peeling off to hand the car to co-driver James Bergmuller who piloted the car home to 16th place in his first Australian GT Championship race.

With the field compressed by the safety car, Bates, Lago and Peter Major climbed up the order, the latter showing strong potential on his Australian GT debut.

Indeed, Major went wheel to wheel with Lago into the first chicane as the JBS Australia entry rejoined the race after serving its pit stop.

Lago though resisted the PM Motorsport entry’s attentions, Major falling inline in the third place he held until the finish.

Liam Talbot claimed fourth in the Mega Racing Porsche GT3-R, while in fifth place Tony Walls fended off James Koundouris in the Supabarn Supermarkets Audi R8 LMS.

Walls and Koundouris headed a pack of five cars that also included Mark Griffith (Hog’s Breath Cafe/Griffith Corporation), Fraser Ross (Tekno Autosports) and Steve McLaughlan (Valvoline).

Bates now heads the 2017 CAMS Australian GT Championship points table from Lago with two races to follow across Saturday and Sunday.

The second 40-minute race of the weekend will take place on Saturday (March 4) at 9:10, with live coverage on Fox Sports, channel 506.

Race 1 Results

Pos Car Competitor/Team Driver Vehicle Laps Race Time
1 24 Moveitnet/AFS Tony Bates Mercedes-AMG GT3 27 39:37.366
2 23 JBS Australia Roger Lago Lamborghini R-EX 27 39:44.632
3 14 PM Motorsport Peter Major Lamborghini R-EX 27 39:46.775
4 911 Mega Racing Liam Talbot Porsche 911 GT3-R 27 39:54.240
5 11 Objective Racing Tony Walls McLaren 650S GT3 27 40:10.594
6 44 Supabarn Supermarkets James Koundouris/Ash Walsh Audi R8 LMS 27 40:13.099
7 19 Hogs Breath Café/Griffith Corporation Mark Griffith Mercedes-AMG GT3 27 40:14.487
8 59 Tekno Autosports Fraser Ross/Come Ledogar McLaren 650S GT3 27 40:14.770
9 75 Jamec Pem Racing Steve McLaughlan Audi R8 LMS 27 40:16.245
10 222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Scott Taylor/Craig Baird Mercedes-AMG GT3 27 40:17.058
11 48 Interlloy M Motorsport Justin McMillan/Glen Wood Lamborghini R-EX 27 40:20.629
12 69 Bank SA Brenton Griguol/Tim Macrow Lamborghini R-EX 27 40:38.453
13 74 Jamec Pem Racing Geoff Emery/Kelvin van der Linde Audi R8 LMS 27 40:38.830
14 73 Triffid.Bar.Venue Michael Hovey/Daniel Jilesen Lamborghini R-EX 27 40:40.494
15 3 Ah Apartments Ash Samadi Audi R8 LMS 27 40:44.459
16 100 BMW Team SRM Steve Richards/James Bergmuller BMW M6 GT3 27 40:57.307
17 51 AMAC Motorsport Andrew Macpherson/Brad Shiels Porsche 997 GT3-R 27 41:01.024
18 9 Hallmarc Construction Marc Cini Audi R8 LMS 26 39:53.702
19 15 Veloce Motorsport/ULX110 Keith Wong/Michael Almond Porsche GT3 Cup Car 26 40:15.329
20 68 Shoal/Thomson Geer Lawyers Michael O’Donnell Porsche GT3 Cup Car 26 40:20.013
21 8 Australian Engineered Flooring Max Twigg Mercedes-AMG GT3 26 40:26.026
22 29 Pirelli/Trofeo Motorsport Jim Manolios/Dean Canto Lamborghini Huracan GT3 25 40:33.433
23 4 Hungry Jacks Tim Miles Lamborghini R-EX 24 39:59.907
DNF 5 GT Motorsport Greg Taylor/Nathan Antunes Audi R8 LMS 4 05:30.541
DNF 7 Darrell Lea Tony Quinn Aston Martin Vantage V12