NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE USE
July 16, 2015
Mawer and Taylor keep Trophy class lead in Townsville
A solid performance at an unfamiliar venue has kept Barton Mawer and Greg Taylor at the top of the Trophy class in the Australian GT Championship.
Driving the Adina Apartment Hotels Audi R8 LMS, Mawer and Taylor placed third in the class for superseded GT3 cars in the third round of the championship at Reid Park in Townsville. Inconsistent results by other Trophy class teams at Reid Park left the pair leading the Trophy class by 31 points – only one fewer than before the round – at the halfway mark of the series.
Their fifth and third placings in the two hour-long races were all the more creditable considering neither had raced before on the 2.8km parkland-street circuit on Queensland’s north coast.
Mawer got off to a great start in Saturday’s race, leading the Trophy class and climbing to fifth outright before coming into the pits at the midpoint to hand over to Taylor. Despite a Safety Car early in the race negating much of Mawer’s Trophy class lead, Taylor brought the multi-coloured Audi home fifth in class.
Taylor drove first in race two on Sunday, and put in another good stint before Mawer took the wheel for the run to the flag. He climbed up the order to third place in the Trophy class, and was closing on second-placed Mark Griffith when the Safety Car came out late in the race.
Unfortunately the two remaining laps weren’t enough for him to overtake Griffith.
Even so, Mawer was satisfied with the weekend’s results.
“This was always going to be a tough round for us, not only because Greg and I hadn’t been here but also because it’s quite a technical layout. It’s hard to learn a new circuit in the limited practice time available, and being a street circuit it has concrete walls that can ruin your day if you make even a small driving mistake.
“But we didn’t put a scratch on the car all weekend, and came away with two good placings. It was disappointing about the timing of the Safety Car in the second race, but that’s the luck of the draw.
“There are faster cars than the Audi, and more experienced ‘gentleman drivers’ than Greg, but we’re doing the best job overall. David Wall and his Wall Racing crew are doing a superb job with the preparation and pit-stops, and Greg’s driving really well in only his second year of racing.
“We’re still more than 30 points ahead, which is what really matters. As long as we keep scoring good results for the remaining three rounds, we’ll be looking good for the championship.
“We’re looking forward to the next round at Sydney Motorsport Park, which will be our ‘home’ race with our racing partners, families and friends looking on.”
RESULTS
2015 Australian GT Championship round 3 – July 10-12, Reid Park (2.8km)
QUALIFYING 1: Greg Taylor 8th in Trophy class; 28th outright
QUALIFYING 2: Barton Mawer 1st in Trophy class; 9th outright
RACE 1 (46 laps/128.8km): Barton Mawer/Greg Taylor 5th in Trophy class; 20th outright
RACE 2 (43 laps/120.4km): Greg Taylor/Barton Mawer 3rd in Trophy class, 16th outright
TROPHY CLASS POSITION: 1st
NEXT ROUND: August 21-23, Sydney Motorsport Park
MORE INFORMATION: www.bartonmawer.com
ENDS