After claiming the 2012 Australian GT Trophy Class title, Equity-One Motorsport’s Dean Koutsoumidis and Andrew McInnes graduated to the championship class for 2013, and despite campaigning a 2011 model Audi R8 LMS, they found themselves in a fight for the final step of the championship podium heading into the last round at the new Highlands Motorsport Park circuit in New Zealand.

“It has been a fantastic season, and frankly, I’m surprised to be in the position we are heading into New Zealand,” Koutsoumidis admitted pre-event.

He was even more surprised when he arrived in the ‘land of the long white cloud’, after being asked to take part in a pre-event promotion. “Sure I said, full of confidence.. then they explained we were bungy jumping and throwing ourselves out of an aeroplane.. doh.”

Fortunately the bungy jumping was replaced with teeing off [golf] from the top of the iconic Remarkables mountain range, before jetboat riding down one of the many dramatic south island rivers, then go karting at Highlands before jumping out of a plane in a tandem jump with an experienced instructor. “I now understand the meaning of fear,” he grinned afterwards. “It was a great experience and added a completely different flavor to the event.”

Koutsoumidis had another surprise offer pre-event, with former team-boss Bruin Beasley [Minda Motorsport] inviting him to join him in the South Island Endurance Series 3-Hour race in a Renault production car. After completing opening practice, he decided though that the value of extra miles would be negated by the big speed differential between the Audi and the Renault.

“I thought that extra miles on the circuit would be an advantage,” he admitted. “But with the big speed differential it wasn’t helping so I’ve elected to just concentrate on the Audi.”

That paid off handsomely in the end, the two Equity-One drivers separated by mere tenths during practice and qualifying, with McInnes setting a time that was good enough for the inside of row four, right behind Melbourne Performance Centre [MPC] team-mate Liam Talbot and right beside fellow MPC stable-mate Steve McLaughlan.

Koutsoumidis took the opening stint in car #71, and he hung onto the tail of the leading pack before stopping mid-race for his compulsory pit stop [CPS] to hand over to McInnes who charged through his stint to cross the line in seventh place.

Despite being in high spirits after yet another competitive run, they also knew that with podium rival Rod Salmon winning the opening race that they’d have their work cut out for them in race two.

“Full credit to Rod and Liam, that’s a fantastic result,” Koutsoumidis admitted. “Look in all honesty, to be coming into the final round third in points is testament to the teams that have supported us this year and kept the car running consistently. Realistically with a three year old car we’re not outright contenders, but we’re always there, and seventh is a pretty good result for us against such a high quality field.”

Off the fourth row again for the start of race two, McInnes immediately applied pressure, moving onto the tail of Peter Edwards in the Ferrari 458 as they fired under the Pirelli bridge, the Equity-One/Biowrap.com.au Audi pilot taking a big dive down the inside of Edwards on the run into the Karussell. That put Edwards off line, the Ferrari driver spinning as a result allowing McInnes through to pursue the leading trio.

As the leaders dived to the pits mid-race for their CPS McInnes put the #71 Audi in the box seat after punching out a succession of quick laps. With Craig Baird catching him in the #1 Porsche for second, he continued to push hard 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 knew I shouldn’t have been on the slippery part of the circuit, but I thought I could pull it up in time,” a somber McInnes admitted. “It was my fault, I just didn’t have any grip. I’m more disappointed for Dean and the team because we were well in contention.”

Sadly for McInnes he was right. At the time he came off he was closing on 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 leading pack.

“That’s the first time in two years that we’ve had a DNF, and I’m pretty annoyed about it to be honest.”

With Salmon claiming his second podium result in two days, the final step of the podium went to their MPC team-mate, but despite the unfortunate end to their 2013 Australian GT campaign, the Equity-One/Biowrap.com.au Audi team were in good spirits.

“If you’d said to me at the start of the year that we’d be battling for podium results I’d have been surprised,” Koutsoumidis admitted. “It’s testament to the work that Minda and MPC have done with the car, and also Andrew’s efforts have been first class, not just as a co-driver, but as a team-mate, his performance has certainly lifted mine and given me a great bench mark to drive to. Having Timmy Macrow in the car at QR helped too, and that really pushed me to step up again as a driver. All in all, I’m very happy with the way our season played out, but it’s not over yet, now we get a chance to make amends for the DNF with the Highlands 101 tomorrow..!”

Whilst race two wrapped up the 2013 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli, the assembled GT regulars still had the ‘Highlands 101’ ahead of them, an invitational race over 101-laps that included all the GT series regulars against the top qualifying NZ South Island Endurance Series [SIES] regulars.

A field of 33 cars lined up for qualifying, which was scheduled just three hours ahead of the big race with the starting positions set by the fastest times set by each driver in the car combined.

By the close of qualifying the #71 Audi had qualified ninth behind a number of SIES regulars in their ‘hot-rod’ Porsches (SIES runs unlimited rules, so cars are open to engine and tyre modifications), and with a Le Mans style foot race for the co-drivers set to start the cars from pit-lane, Koutsoumidis elected to start giving McInnes a 250-metre fitness test ahead of his first stint in the car.

Whilst some of the slower qualifying cars with quick young sprinters as co-drivers gained the early advantage, the faster GT cars were soon through to the lead of the race, with Koutsoumidis moving well inside the top ten before his first stop.

Some teams elected to play the strategy game, pitting when the Safety Car was out on circuit, however the Equity-One/Biowrap.com.au Audi stayed out to run to a schedule, although sadly that decision played against them with the Safety Car dropping them down a lap more than once.

In the end the two GT series regulars held on for a ninth place finish, behind race winner Tony Quinn and his V8 Supercar winning co-driver Fabian Coulthard, whilst MPC team-mates Rod Salmon and Liam Talbot – who were also joined by V8 Supercar regular Jason Bright – claimed second.

“That was a tough race with all the traffic and the Safety Cars, but the Audi performed faultlessly again,” Koutsoumidis acknowledged. “That’s now the completion of an amazing year that included some fantastic results, and again, very few issues. That race two DNF by Andrew was the first time we’ve failed to finish in two years, but the car came back to the pits without a scratch, so we’ve almost got a perfect record.

“Next season it looks like we’ll drop back to the Trophy Class now that the Audi will be four seasons old, and there we’ll have some pretty serious competition, but we won’t be looking for a podium result at the end of the year, we’ll be looking for that championship trophy, so look out!

“We have to say a big thanks to all the people that have helped us this year, from the team at MPC and Minda Motorsport, to the series organisers, our long-term sponsors, our new partner Biowrap.com.au and our MPC team-mates. You shouldn’t be allowed to have this much fun in one season of racing, now it’s time to have a break and become human again before all the nonsense starts again next March!”