Sydney tie keeps Mawer and Taylor in Trophy class lead

Sydney tie keeps Mawer and Taylor in Trophy class lead

The status quo is unchanged in the Trophy class of the Australian GT Championship after a dramatic fourth round at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Barton Mawer and Greg Taylor still lead the class for superseded GT3 models by 31 points after tying for the round with solo driver Mark Griffith, who sits second in the pointscore.

Mawer put the Adina Apartment Hotels team on a solid footing on Friday by qualifying the 2011 Audi R8 LMS second in class and 10th outright. In Saturday’s first hour-long race he brought the car home third in class after taking the wheel for the second stint during the compulsory pit-stop.

Rain before Sunday’s race made the 3.93km SMP ‘Gardner’ circuit treacherously slippery, and Mawer starred in the difficult conditions. From 18th starting position he slithered past no fewer than 12 cars, many of them current model Championship class machines, on the opening lap!

He was running first in the Trophy class and fifth outright, right behind eventual race winner Grant Denyer, when the Adina Apartment Hotels team called him in for the compulsory pit-stop on lap 10. From then on, Taylor drove quickly and steadily on the drying track.

With two laps remaining he was third in class and closing on leader Griffith. When the second-placed car retired on the last lap the stage was set for a grandstand finish, Taylor crossing the Finish line less than two tenths of a second behind!

With both entries scoring equal Trophy Class points for the round, the Adina Apartment Hotels Team was officially placed second based on the Race 2 finishing order.

Despite not collecting the winner’s trophy, Mawer was relieved that the team came through the round with its points lead intact.

“We thought that Sydney Motorsport Park would be one of our easier rounds, being our ‘home ground’, but it turned out to be one of the most difficult,” he said. “The first race result wasn’t quite as good as we hoped after Greg had to slow because of vibrations caused by ‘pick up’ (small pieces of discarded rubber stuck to the tyres).

“But the second race was great. Having raced in the wet quite a few times here and overseas, I probably had more experience in those conditions than some of the drivers out there. I was overtaking Championship class cars around the outside throughout the opening lap!

“Greg did an excellent job considering it was his first race on a damp track. He very nearly pulled off the class win!”

Mawer was also impressed by Taylor’s skilful avoidance of pair of crashed cars on the track during his qualifying session.

“He slowed down and calmly picked a path through the wreckage, unlike other drivers who arrived too fast and nearly became part of the accident,” he said. “You’d never know that he’s only been racing a bit more than a year!”

Mawer is looking forward to the penultimate round of the Australian GT Championship at Sandown in Melbourne next month.

“There are only two rounds to go, so we’re getting to the business end of the championship,” he said. “Greg and I have to keep pushing hard every lap, and with continued reliability and slick pit work by Wall Racing I’m confident that we can keep our points advantage.”

 RESULTS

2015 Australian GT Championship round 4 – August 21-23, Sydney Motorsport Park

QUALIFYING: 2nd in Trophy class; 10th outright
RACE 1 (31 laps/121.8km): Greg Taylor-Barton Mawer 3rd in Trophy class; 18th outright
RACE 2 (29 laps/114.0km): Barton Mawer-Greg Taylor 2nd in Trophy class, 8th outright

 TROPHY CLASS POINTSCORE

NEXT ROUND

September 11-13, Sandown International Motor Raceway