Rod Salmon and Steve McLaughlan have handed Audi a clean sweep at the opening round of the 2017 CAMS Australian GT Trophy Series presented by Pirelli at Sandown Raceway.

Having stormed his way to victory in the opening 50-minute race, McLaughlan was then part of a thrilling three-way lead battle deep into the day’s second race.

Pushing hard in pursuit of race leader Rob Smith, McLaughlan spun in the closing minutes of the race to fall to seventh at the flag.

Moments later,.Salmon capitalised on a moment’s hesitation from Smith, seizing the inside line at Dandenong Road to move into top spot.

Smith immediately fought back, harrying the back of the Skwirk Audi R8 Ultra for the remainder of the race, the two Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia cars split by just 0.9-seconds at the flag.

“The weather was absolutely terrible, but the racing was close,” enthused Rod Salmon after collecting the trophy for claiming second for the round.

“At the end Audis were just on each other; Steve was in front of me, Rob was in front of me, then when Steve just clipped the corner and went around in front of me I thought it was all over.

“It was exciting to get the win considering the first place when we were pretty well off the pace with old tyres.”

Third place across the line in Trophy Class was Wayne Mack (Mack Bros Roofing Products Ferrari 458 GT3), who flashed across the line less than half a second off the back of Scott Hookey’s Fiorano Motorsport Ferrari 458 Challenge.

Earlier, McLaughlan drove an inch perfect race to dominate the opening encounter, taking control of proceedings at the pit stops before extending a 39-second advantage over Jan Jinadasa.

McLaughlan had gone door to door through the opening two corners with pole-sitter Jake Fouracre, the Eat Funiture Audi holding the advantage around the outside of turn one before handing the car to Rio Nugara from the race lead.

Jan Jinadasa put in a solid drive to take a well-earned second place in the JJA Consulting Lamborghini Gallardo while, rising almost unnoticed through the field, Emanuel Mezzasalma moved from 15th to 3rd in the to record a strong podium position

“The race this morning was great because we had plenty of tyre grip,” McLaughlan explained.

“We finished seventh in the second race, which wasn’t ideal because we were fighting for the lead.

“It didn’t quite go to plan in the second race, but we managed to gather it up and do enough to get the round win,” McLaughlan said.

“It’s great to have a win, and hopefully we can go on and have a few more.”

A race-long battle between Rod Salmon (Skwirk Audi R8) and Rob Smith (Southern Developments Audi) was resolved in the dying stages in favour of the 2016 title winner as Keith Kassulke claimed the opening MARC Class victory of the weekend, before trailing Jake Camilleri across the line in Race 2.

The MARC Cars Australia duo had been engaged in an exciting battle for fifth place mid-way through the opening race that also involved Smith and Salmon, with Kassulke ultimately taking out the round courtesy of two strong qualifying sessions on Saturday.

Camilleri scored enough points to claim second for the round and John Goodacre (Gap Solutions/SEKTOR) sealed third in class for the weekend.

The CAMS Australian GT Trophy Series presented by Pirelli next heads to Winton Motor Raceway (June 9-11) for its second round, while Australian GT will be back in action at Barbagallo for the third round of the CAMS Australian GT Championship on May 5-7.

Race 1 Results
Pos    Competitor/Team    Driver    Vehicle    Time
1    Audi Sport Customer Racing    Steve McLaughlan    Audi R8 LMS Ultra    50:29.051
2    JJA Consulting Group    Jan Jinadasa    Lamborghini Gallardo LP560    51:08.144
3    Harcourts Epping    Emanuel Mezzasalma    Porsche 997 Cup Car    51:35.991
4    Audi Sport Customer Racing    Rob Smith    Audi R8 LMS Ultra    50:37.485
5    MARC Cars Australia    Keith Kassulke    MARC Focus V8    50:39.623
6    Audi Sport Customer Racing    Rod Salmon    Audi R8 LMS Ultra    50:43.700
7    MARC Cars Australia    Jake Camilleri    MARC Mazda V8    50:44.172
8    Freechoice    Travers Beynon    Audi R8 LMS    50:53.708
9    Audi Sport Customer Racing    Rio Nugara/Jake Fouracre    Audi R8 LMS Ultra    51:06.150
10    Fiorano Motorsport    Scott Hookey    Ferrari 458 Challenge    51:19.601
11    Mack Bros Roofing Products    Wayne Mack    Ferrari 458 GT3    51:26.286
12    MARC Cars Australia    Melinda Price/Liam McLellan    MARC Mazda V8    51:32.380
13    Kentucky Fried Chicken    Gary Higgon/Matthew Stoupas    Audi R8 LMS    50:58.697
14    Whitlock Bull Bars    Con Whitlock    Audi R8 LMS    51:14.367
15    Audi Sport Customer Racing    Rick Mensa    Audi R8 LMS    51:26.295
16    M Motorsport Interlloy    Justin McMillan/Dean Koutsoumidis    KTM X-Bow    50:29.568
DNF    Gap Solutions/SEKTOR    John Goodacre    MARC Focus V8    08:45.816
DNS    Safe-T-Stop    Richard Gartner    Lamborghini Gallardo LP600

Race 2 Results
Pos    Competitor/Team    Driver    Vehicle    Time
1    Audi Sport Customer Racing    Rod Salmon    Audi R8 LMS Ultra    51:21.393
2    Audi Sport Customer Racing    Rob Smith    Audi R8 LMS Ultra    51:22.313
3    Fiorano Motorsport    Scott Hookey    Ferrari 458 Challenge    51:57.714
4    Mack Bros Roofing Products    Wayne Mack    Ferrari 458 GT3    51:58.193
5    JJA Consulting Group    Jan Jinadasa    Lamborghini Gallardo LP560    52:00.865
6    MARC Cars Australia    Jake Camilleri    MARC Mazda V8    52:09.743
7    Audi Sport Customer Racing    Steve McLaughlan    Audi R8 LMS Ultra    52:13.303
8    MARC Cars Australia    Keith Kassulke    MARC Focus V8    52:22.774
9    Audi Sport Customer Racing    Rick Mensa    Audi R8 LMS    52:29.813
10    Freechoice    Travers Beynon    Audi R8 LMS    51:27.855
11    Safe-T-Stop    Richard Gartner    Lamborghini Gallardo LP600    51:39.263
12    Gap Solutions/SEKTOR    John Goodacre    MARC Focus V8    52:12.698
13    Whitlock Bull Bars    Con Whitlock    Audi R8 LMS    51:51.216
14    M Motorsport Interlloy    Justin McMillan/Dean Koutsoumidis    KTM X-Bow    52:27.530
DNF    MARC Cars Australia    Melinda Price/Liam McLellan    MARC Mazda V8    50:17.138
DNF    Harcourts Epping    Emanuel Mezzasalma    Porsche 997 Cup Car    01:38.528
DNF    Kentucky Fried Chicken    Gary Higgon/Matthew Stoupas    Audi R8 LMS    01:43.466
DNF    Audi Sport Customer Racing    Rio Nugara/Jake Fouracre    Audi R8 LMS Ultra

Trophy Class Points Score*
Steve McLaughlan    165
Rod Salmon    161
Jan Jinadasa    155
Rob Smith    153
Wayne Mack    108
Travers Beynon    78
Emanuel Mezzasalma    70
Rick Mensa    65
Con Whitlock    52
Rio Nugara    50
Jake Fouracre    50
Richard Gartner    50
Gary Higgon    32
Matthew Stoupas    32
MARC Class Points Score*
Keith Kassulke    202
Jake Camilleri    190
John Goodacre    85
Melinda Price    81
Liam McLellan    81
*Points score to be officially confirmed