After an incredible 2023 season full of tight racing and incredible drama, Shannons Audi driver Liam Talbot has emerged in the box seat to claim the Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS title in the final 40-minute sprint in Adelaide.
Entering the weekend, Talbot had a seven point advantage over Jamec Racing's Geoff Emery (Audi), with EMA Motorsport / The Bend Motorsport Park's Yasser Shahin (Porsche) twenty-two points behind Talbot, with fifty-one points on offer across the weekend.
With finishes of second and first in the first two races of the weekend alongside German co-driver Christopher Mies, Talbot has moved from 180 points to 209 points, with Shahin matching those two results across the weekend, meaning the twenty-two point gap remains.
However, with seventeen points on offer for the race win tomorrow, Shahin was mathematically ruled out of championship contention in this morning's race, having needed the full seventeen points to have any chance of contending for the Pro Am title tomorrow morning.
Though Shahin is now out of contention, he could still play an important role in deciding the championship, as the EMA Motorsport Porsche co-driven by Matt Campbell has been the closest competition for the Shannons Audi of Talbot and Christopher Mies.
Shahin has been taking valuable points off of Geoff Emery this weekend, with the Jamec Racing Audi recording two third place finishes despite the best efforts of Emery and co-driver Max Hofer.
Emery is now sixteen points behind Talbot heading into the final race of the season, and is in a must-win situation if he is to add another GT World Challenge Australia crown to the three championships he won in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
However, if Emery wins, he needs Talbot to record a DNF and score zero points in the finale in order to win the championship, which he will do by just a single point if that scenario plays out.
If Talbot so much as greets the chequered flag and is classified tomorrow, he will win his first Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS title, topping off a fantastic year that began with victory in the Pro Am class at the Bathurst 12 Hour in February.
The Pro Am title wasn't the only one on the line this weekend in Adelaide, as the Am class championship also went down to the final round between the Audis of Brad Schumacher and Matt Stoupas/Paul Stokell.
The Schumacher Motorsport driver entered the weekend with a twenty-three point advantage over the KFC Audi, and took victory in Race One to move one step closer to claiming his first Am title in GT World Challenge Australia.
Stoupas/Stokell took the win in Race Two, however third in class was enough for Schumacher to mathematically clinch the Am class title for 2023, entering the final race with a twenty-one point buffer with a maximum of seventeen points available in Race Three.
The GT3 Trophy title was wrapped up at the previous round at Queensland Raceway by Renee Gracie in her Only Fans Audi, who has stepped up to the Am class this weekend in an upgraded Audi.
The final race for Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS begins at 9:20am local time tomorrow morning.
The race will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 506.