Heading into the final round of the 2013 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli at the impressive new Highlands Motorsport Park circuit in New Zealand, the Melbourne Performance Centre team had a dilemma on their hands. Both of their Audi teams were in a position to claim the final step of the championship podium, although despite proving to be the stronger outfit during the early rounds of the season, Rod Salmon had lost his points lead to Dean Koutsoumidis last time out in Queensland and both teams had arrived ready for action.

For Salmon, he was once again joined by rising star Liam Talbot, whilst for Koutsoumidis he was back with long-time co-driver Andrew McInnes, and both teams were hungry for a result.

After struggling to find consistency during the year, Salmon surprised everyone with his practice pace to be quicker than his ‘rookie’ team-mate, although he did give Talbot the keys for qualifying. Over in the Equity-One camp, Dean Koutsoumidis who had initially entered to drive a production car in the South Island Endurance Series season final, withdrew from the co-driver’s seat in that event admitting that the cars were just too different.

“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 McInness setting a time that was good enough for row four, right behind Talbot and right beside fellow MPC stable-mate Steve McLaughlan.

Koutsoumidis was scheduled to start the #71 Audi, whilst Talbot charged off the line in race one to trail Baird, Quinn, Bowe and Greg Murphy, the young Audi recruit never more than a car length from the established stars all the way to the scheduled stop.

Despite an 18 second lead as he hits the pits, Baird handed the reigns to the #1 Porsche to Klark Quinn and emerged from the pits just metres ahead of Salmon.

With a target to follow over the closing stages of the race, Salmon locked into a comfortable pace and kept Quinn within sight before the field was grouped once more behind the Safety Car. On the restart Salmon continued to attack, and amazingly, stole the lead from Quinn whose pace had dropped significantly.

Behind him V8 Supercar star Fabian Coulthard closed in in Tony Quinn’s Aston Martin, but despite throwing everything he could at Salmon, he was unable to close the gap before the flag, Salmon crossing the line to take an historic first victory in the Highlands venue’s very first race, and with it, his maiden victory in Australian GT against one of the most competitive fields in GT history.

“That’s fantastic,” Rod Salmon beamed afterwards. “That has to be one of the best wins of my career. I could see Coulthard coming, but I just focused on getting every apex right and making the most out of the Audi’s speed through the tight section of the circuit.

“Liam had really set the foundations for that win, it couldn’t have played out any better.”
For team-mate Liam Talbot, he admitted that the enormity of the result still hadn’t hit him.

“Afterwards they told me it was the former Bathurst 1000 winner Greg Murphy behind the wheel of the McLaren, but I didn’t believe it,” Talbot admitted. “He was holding me up, and as we came towards the compulsory pit stop, I thought about making a move, but in the end just followed the pack down pit lane to hand over to Rod.”

Whilst there was jubilation in the #6 camp, there was frustration down in the #75 camp of Steve McLaughlan and Greg Crick after the mighty Viper rolled to a stop on lap eight.

“There was a bang, and something let go in the driveline, we’re not sure what it is yet, but hopefully we have the parts with us to fix it,” McLaughlan explained post-race.

The #71 team too were in high spirits after a strong run, McInnes crossing the line seventh to keep them in the race for the championship podium, although after a big points haul for race victor Rod Salmon, Dean Koutsoumidis knew that he’d have his work cut out for him in race two.

“Full credit to Rod and Liam, that’s a fantastic result. 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.”

Courtesy of his race one win, Salmon led the field away for the final race of the 2013 season, the dual Bathurst 12-Hour champion though was quickly overtaken by Fabian Coulthard in the Aston Martin, but despite falling a lap later to champion-elect Klark Quinn, he held on to third place ahead of a charging Andrew McInnes.

McInnes had monstered the cars in front of him off the start, and after forcing Peter Edwards in the Ferrari into a spin on the exit of the Karussel, he had inherited fourth place, and maintained the gap to Salmon in front of him up until the compulsory mid-race pit stop.

As the leaders dived to the pits McInnes put the #71 Audi in the box seat after punching out a succession of quick laps. With Baird catching him for second, he was pushing 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 [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 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.”

Whilst the challenge for the final step of the championship podium was over, Liam Talbot still needed to finish the race and hang on to his position inside the top three. He did that with ease, handing the Skwirk.com.au team not just a second podium, but second overall for the round behind race two winners Tony Quinn and Fabian Coulthard.

“That’s brilliant,” an elated Rod Salmon beamed. “It has been such a mixed year, but we’ve come good at the right time, and to finish the season in third place is full credit to the Melbourne Performance Centre team, and all our guys. It’s also great credit to the versatility of the Audi. This is a new circuit that nobody has ever competed on before, and against some of the best GT cars in the world, we’ve come through with a victory and a second podium, I couldn’t be happier. Bring on the 101!!”

After the disappointment of race one, Steve McLaughlan and Greg Crick recovered in race two to take ninth place and third in the GT Trophy class, but the result in the Championship had been all but decided prior to the final round, giving the #75 team the title for 2013.

“We were fortunate that the damage in race one was only the crown wheel (differential) and we had a spare ready to slot in,’ McLaughlan explained.

“The car ran faultlessly all the way to the flag, but starting rear of field gave our opposition a bit of an advantage. Cricky got the car well up the order before the stop, but afterwards the class leaders had the advantage so we just hung on to the end.

“I’m happy to have taken the title this year, and am really looking forward to defending it next year in the Audi because it sounds like we’ll have plenty of competition.”

Whilst that 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 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.

For the #6 team, that meant someone would have to sit out and watch, as for the ‘101’ Salmon and Talbot had been joined by V8 Supercar star and 2014 Bathurst 12-Hour recruit Jason Bright.

Despite just six laps in the car, Bright was back in the pits suggesting modifications to the car to improve its pace. “It’s fantastic to drive, but it’s a little skaty under brakes at the rear end, so we made some adjustments and it’s much better. The track is fantastic, but pretty busy, so we’ll see how it plays out tomorrow. The big trick will be being there at the end.”

By the close of qualifying the #6 Audi was classified in P5, just a tenth off a second row start. The #71 entry 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 modifcations), whilst the #75 Dodge would start from P13.

The start for the ‘101’ was a change from the norm for the GT regulars too, with a Le Mans style foot race to the cars by the co-drivers, but this was no cross circuit stroll, but instead a 250 metre sprint. In many cases that decided the starting order for the field – with Salmon taking the start in the Skwirk Audi, Koutsoumidis in the Equity-One Audi and McLaughlan in the Viper – leaving the second driver with the position of having to gain as much ground as he could off the start

Talbot proved a handy sprinter, helping Salmon to move up a few spots immediately, whilst further back Koutsoumidis and McLaughlan held down positions mid-field.

The faster GT cars were soon through to the lead, with Salmon holding position as he had done during the two 40-minute GT races to be within striking distance of the leaders should anything go wrong.

The team played the strategy game early to pit Salmon who handed the reigns to Talbot as Koutsoumidis continued to punch out consistent laps and move up the order as the leaders started to pit and play the strategy game themselves.

A series of Safety Car periods to reclaim stranded cars mixed up the order, in the process dropping the #71 car down a lap.

Sadly for the McLaughlan/Crick Viper, it was out early after an electrical issue with the fuel pump robbed it of supply, the big Dodge rolling to a stop within metres of where it had finished the opening GT race.

“Up till then it was going like a train,” McLaughlan shrugged. “It’s one of those things that happens. The car’s fine, I’m sure it’s just a connection or a switch, but that’s it for us. Now it’s on to the Audi for next year – I’m really looking forward to that!”

As the race wore on, Jason Bright jumped behind the wheel of the Skwirk.com.au Audi and immediately gave notice that he’d be the man to watch. He quickly began to work his way through the field, at one stage frightening one of the SIES regulars by over taking him AND Greg Murphy on the Pirelli bridge – a two lane piece of circuit.

In the end he was unable to catch race leader Fabian Coulthard, but second for the Salmon/Talbot/Bright combination was good enough.

“I think I’m going to move here,” Rod Salmon laughed post-race. “How good is this track, how good is this venue. I know I’m biased after our win on Friday, but quite honestly this is one spectacular venue and the racing has been fantastic.

“I can’t thank our Melbourne Performance Centre team enough, and what a great couple of stints by Brighty and Liam to help cement the result. For us it has been a faultless weekend, and a win, a third and a second is more than we could have dreamt for coming in.

“Now it’s on to the Bathurst 12-Hour where we’ll be joined again by Warren Luff. I think we showed this weekend that we can be as competitive as the best of them, and with a few possible modifications to the car to bring it up to 2013 spec, we should be looking pretty good to kick the new year off with a high!”