It was a fitting end to the 2013 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli at Highlands Motorsport Park, with the final race of the season and the maiden event at the new state-of-the-art facility won by track owner Tony Quinn.
The victory was set up by a stunning opening stint by co-driver Fabian Coulthard, the V8 Supercar regular opening up an impressive 28 second lead prior to his Compulsory Pit Stop [CPS], handing Quinn a relatively unassailable lead, relatively because the man responsible for chasing the Aston Martin down was none other than lap record holder Craig Baird.
Baird threw everything he had at the challenge, in the process lowering the lap record he’d set during race one to 1:34.575, but despite cutting the deficit from 20 seconds down to five at the line, the historic victory was never in doubt.
“That was brilliant,” a jubilant Tony Quinn admitted afterwards. “Fabian drove a fantastic opening stint to give me a buffer over Bairdo. I could see him coming but had plenty in reserve.”
“I threw everything I had at it,” Baird admitted. “Klark drove a brilliant first stint, but Fabian was just too quick. The traffic wasn’t too bad, we just couldn’t catch them in the end.”
Third in race two and second overall for the round – some 30 seconds further back – was race one winners Rod Salmon and Liam Talbot, Salmon continuing to smile widely after setting the fastest time for the pairing.
Salmon held the lead on the run to the ‘bus-stop’ chicane, but by the exit of Southern Loop it was Coulthard who hit the front on his way to a strong early lead. Salmon though managed to keep the field at bay once Klark Quinn had made his way through, and as the pit stops started to cycle through, it was the charging Andrew McInnes in the Equity-One/Biowrap.com.au Audi R8 that inherited the lead.
McInnes was circulating comfortably in the 1:37s an holding down fourth position, and he looked to be in the box seat as he approached his pit stop window, but 13 laps in he made a passing move on Michael Hovey’s Ginetta on the run into the final corner, and skated off on the exit, bogging the R8 in the kitty litter on the outside of the tight right-hander.
Many expected a Safety Car to be called, but race control elected for double yellow flags, allowing officials to recover the car, in the process losing valuable laps, the team retiring the car shortly after.
“I just ran out of talent,” a somber McInnes admitted. “It was my fault, I was on the slippery part of the circuit and I just didn’t have grip. I’m more disappointed for Dean [Koutsoumidis] and the team because we were well in contention.”
Sadly for McInnes he was right. At the time he came off he was the race leader, and just a couple of laps from completing his stop, a stop that under CPS rules (adjusted relative to driver grading and starting position) would have seen them gain some 26 seconds in the pits over the Quinn/Baird combination in the Porsche.
“That’s the first time in two years that we’ve had a DNF, and I’m pretty annoyed about it to be honest.”
Whilst McInnes was out, behind him former-F1 driver Ivan Capelli had inherited the lead after an outstanding opening stint, the former Ferrari driver passing more than half a dozen cars in the opening lap to have the big Trofeo Corvette fifth and on the tail of Neil Crompton in the McLaren by the completion of lap one.
He was soon through on Crompton to be fifth behind McInnes and catching the second of the Audis before the R8 was forced into retirement.
Pitting with a comfortable lead, the Trofeo team lost valuable time in the pits with difficulties during the driver change, all but losing the advantage Capelli had gained.
By this stage Tony Quinn was holding a comfortable lead with Baird in hot pursuit. Liam Talbot inherited third from Salmon, whilst a hard charging Greg Murphy recovered for fourth.
John Bowe made a late race assault on Ferrari 458 Italia stable-mate Andrew Taplin and local stars Simon Evans and Andrew Waite (Aston Martin DBRS9) to claim fifth, a great recovery after an opening lap spin by car-owner Peter Edwards on the exit of the Karussell.
By virtue of their outstanding drive in the ex-Tony Quinn Aston, the Evans/Waite combination took the Trophy Class round victory ahead of Porsche Cup-S drivers Andrew MacPherson and Ben Porter who crept back into the top ten, just ahead of the recovering Steve McLaughlan/Greg Crick Dodge Viper and the third placed (outright) Gallardo LP520 of Jan Jinadasa.
Courtesy of a brilliant opening stint by Porsche regular Michael Almond in the Ben Foessel Porsche Type 997, the duo were able to overcome the Padayachee/Zerefos combination to claim the win the Challenge class, whilst an outstanding opening stint by Jack Perkins set car-owner Mark Griffith on the path to championship glory, aided by Michael Hovey’s DNF in the opening race.
Tony Martin was the only other casualty of race two, the GT Sports driver coming to grief in the fast Southern Loop 180 degree sweeper (turn two), backing the GT4 Ginetta G50 into the wall on lap five, the resulting damage ending his run.
For the GT regulars the championship may be over, but with the inaugural Highlands 101 – a 101-lap (3.5 hours) invitational event for the leading Australian GT teams combined with the top qualifiers from the NZ South Island Endurance Series.