An outright win for Brett Hobson in race one, round three of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia was the highlight of a mixed weekend for GWR Australia at the OTR Bend SuperSprint on the weekend.
The opening GT race on Saturday was held in variable weather conditions – it started on a damp, but rapidly-drying circuit. While many teams elected for the conservative option of starting on wet tyres, GWR made a bold decision to start on slicks. Within a lap of the race commencing, it was clear that slicks were the correct option and Hobson shot into the outright lead, building a sizeable margin over his rivals.
Through some shrewd analysis of the weather radar, team owner Garth Walden noticed a rapidly-approaching shower of rain, and so the decision was made to change to wet tyres during Hobson’s pit stop. Again, the call proved to be the right one, with rain saturating the circuit and handing Hobson a decisive advantage.
As well as winning the Trophy Class, Hobson also beat home all the outright GT3-class cars to score a sensational overall victory.
“I’m stoked, the GWR crew absolutely nailed the strategy,” an ecstatic Hobson said after the race.
“The car was fantastic but what won us the race was being on the right tyres at the right time, which is entirely down to the team’s quick thinking.”
Unfortunately, a problem with the compressor for the air-actuated gearshift forced Hobson into retirement in Sunday’s second race.
GWR also ran the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup entry for Morris Finance Pro-Am class driver Indiran Padayachee.
Padayachee did a great job of qualifying eighth in class in wet conditions, and was on target for a strong result in race one after missing a multi-car pileup on the main straight. However, his day ended a few corners later when a tangle with another competitor broke the steering.
“I saw cars spinning left and right and I thought ‘how good is this’”, Padayachee said.
“Unfortunately, I had a hit with another car which put me out.”
Padayachee recovered for a pair of ninth-place finishes in races two and three.
The next Carrera Cup round will be held at Townsville in July, while the next GT World Challenge round comes up at Sandown in September.
