Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Broc Feeney have conquered the Mountain at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International, winning the three-hour endurance race in addition to the Motorsport Australia Endurance Championship.
It was a tight contest throughout the three-hour duration as local Brad Schumacher just missed out on victory alongside Tim Slade, as the pair nearly gave the team’s upgraded Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II a dream debut.
Finishing third was the Harrolds Volante Rosso Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Ross Poulakis and Jordan Love to be just 26.957s down on the lead duo after three hours.
Schumacher and Slade led for most of the contest, but a pass from Feeney after a robust battle with just half an hour to go enabled the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG to take the win, adding to the squad’s strong result in the LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 Hour earlier this year.
The LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 Hour also counted as the opening round of the Motorsport Australia Endurance Championship, where Ibrahim was joined by Feeney and regular co-driver Shane van Gisbergen finishing in third.
Tim Miles and GT debutant Jack Smith finished just off the podium in fourth from Marc Cini’s similar Hallmarc Audi as shared with Michael Caruso.
Rounding out the Pro-Am field was the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Wall Racing duo Adrian Deitz and David Wall two laps down on the top three.
Leading the AM Class throughout, the RAM Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Michael Sheargold and Garth Walden finished seventh outright.
The sole GT Trophy entry of Valmont Racing as Marcel Zalloua partnered by Sergio Pires split the two Am Class entries in eighth as the Koundouris brothers Theo and James in the Supabarn Supermarket Audi followed in ninth.
Mark Griffith and Nash Morris took GT4 honours in the Daimler Trucks Brisbane entry just ahead of the similar Mercedes-AMG GT4 shared by Sam Brabham and Christos Batzios.
An early mechanical problem for the unique Invitational Class KTM X-Bow GT2 driven by Trent Harrison and David Crampton forced it into retirement, the only one for the race.
The final round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS sprint season will be held on the streets of Adelaide where the world’s most exotic marques will do battle once again on December 1-4.