THE Audi which finished third in this year’s Repco Bathurst 12 Hour will appear in South Australia this weekend.
The Melbourne Performance Centre-prepared R8 LMS Evo II which powered Kelvin van der Linde, Christopher Haase and Liam Talbot to a podium placing at the Mountain will now be rolled out for GT World Challenge Australia’s round at The Bend.
Donning the #88, it will be driven by Steve Brooks and Carrera Cup veteran Nick McBride.
“I’m really excited for the opportunity and a new challenge driving an Audi R8 GT3 at The Bend this weekend,” said McBride.
“I’ve never been around The Bend short track, and I’ve never driven a GT3 car before, so this will be an all-new experience and a great chance to try something a little different.
“I watched the opening round from Phillip Island on the television and I had some serious FOMO. It looked like so much fun.
“The GT3 races are really interesting, with Ams starting one day and the Pros the next day. I love the team aspect of it.
“We don’t get that so much in Carrera Cup. We are generally out there in Sprint races, so it will be cool to team up with someone else and have the team make an impact in the races.
“I have no idea what to expect. It will be a huge learning curve, but I’m just going in with eyes wide open.”
Brooks is no stranger to Audi GT3 equipment, but Tailem Bend will be new to him.
“I’ve raced GTs in New Zealand previously in the South Island Endurance Series driving an Audi and Tony Quinn’s six-hour event at Highlands, plus even gave the Bathurst 6 Hour ago, but we broke a driveshaft an hour in,” said the Kiwi.
“I love the Audi. I think out of all the GT3 models the Audi is really good value for money and in my opinion outperform the other brands. The Audi here in New Zealand is consistently first or second in those conditions, so it’s part of the reason I’ll jump into one of those in Australia.
“I’m looking forward to working with Nick, studying his data and seeing how we can improve.”
