The iconic Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst was a change of scenery and a distinctively challenging circuit that would showcase precision, consistency and drama over another six hours of racing, where we would have a new winner for the second round of the 2022 ADAC SimRacingExpo Professional Trophy by SimRacing.GP.
The #10 TRITON Racing crew of Dominik Blajer, Max Wojtnya and Jakub Charkot would pilot their BMW M4 GT3 to a victory by 30 seconds, after a 175-lap race of survival around the tight, twisty and demanding 6.213-km circuit, which would also put them as the new standings leader.
It was another great race for the #124 of Williams Esports, who were one of a handful of teams that decided to opt for the Honda NSX GT3, as the trio of Tinko Van Der Velde, Igor de Oliveira Rodrigues and Dáire McCormack brought it home to finish second. They would also end up equalling TRITON on points, but the race winners would be atop them based on count back.
GTWR would have both highs and lows in the race, as the #38 BMW M4 would firstly round out the top three, thanks to the efforts of Darren King, Chris Harteveld and Vojtech Fiala. The #21 GTWR Go Setups car of Luke Whitehead, Andrea Capoccia and Amir Hosseini would suffer a disconnect in the first hour, which then meant Hosseini could not re-join the race, thereby later having decided to not finish the race.
It was another sterling performance from Veloce, who put another Honda in the top four, as James Baldwin, Jardier and Eamonn Murphy all showcased consistency, in front of Virtualdrivers by TX3, who completed the top five in the #72 BMW, courtesy of Valentin Barrier, Maximillien Vedy and Maxime Chasset.
It could have been very different for BMW G2 Esports, as they were on course for a race win having led several times during the race. But an incident involving the #53 of Geekz Energy SimRacing at Reid Park just before the halfway point clearly put Robbie Stapleford, Issac Price and Charlie Crossland out of contention, giving them an eventual sixth place finish.
One of the Unicorns of Love teams, the #4 trio of Florian Dührkop, Leon Otocki and Sven Hettich would finish in seventh. Meanwhile, the sister #14 car piloted by Dennis Schöniger would go straight on at the exit of The Chase on the opening lap, due to a technical issue with his brake pedal, but would end up taking 16th.
The remainder of the top ten would heavily feature an exciting battle between the leading qualifier teams, with the #68 BMW of Beaver Grease Racing piloted by Grantas Kareckas, Mantas Povilaitis and Tadas Junkevicus taking not only eighth overall but the class win. They would finish ahead of the #888 of Race Field’s Ivan Shermetinskii, Oleg Zholovov and Leonid Makovkin and the #85 of Team Racing Point’s David Pertile, Amedeo Castorino and Lukas Mateja.
Unicorns of Love’s Bastian Richter would pick up the RIG Fastest Lap of the race award, setting a hard-to-beat 2:00.935 lap time early on, and picks up a RIG headset and 50 Euros for doping so.
Next up, we head from a land down under to one of the most-loved circuits, based in the Ardennes forests of Belgium, as the iconic 7.004-km Spa-Francorchamps circuit will host Round 3 on September 17th. Will we see three winners from three? What dynamic will the weather bring to the race? We’ll all have to wait and find out.