The NATRAD sponsored Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 driven by Bryce Washington has dominated round 3 of the 2007 Australian GT Championship at Bathurst this weekend. Adelaide-based Washington took pole position for the two race round of the Championship in Friday’s qualifying session and then won both of yesterday’s races despite receiving performance penalties prior to both starts, giving the Gallardo sportscar a world wide first ever win.

Washington was never headed over the 12 laps of the 6.213 kilometre circuit during race one, but was closely shadowed all the way by second placed  David Wall in the RDS Wall Racing Porsche GT3 RSR who eventually took the chequered flag just 0.2289 of a second  in arrears of the Lamborghini. Third place went to Allan Simonsen in the Consolidated Chemical Ferrari 360 GT ahead of fourth placed Ian Palmer having his race debut in the Instant Foundations sponsored Lamborghini Gallardo that only arrived in the country days before being taken to Bathurst. An early casualty was John Teulan in the Ferrari 430 Challenge who went off at McPhillamy Park after only a lap and half.

Performing well in the early period of the event was Gary Dann in the Supaloc Porsche GT3 Cup Car who went from 15th for the rolling start to 11th before the intervention of the Safety Car as a result of Teulan’s accident. Dann eventually finished in 10th despite a spin at the Chase on the last lap. With the resumption of racing the leading three - Washington, Wall and Simonsen maintained station while Palmer gradually fell back from the trio despite recording a best race time of 2:16.2703 as compared with his qualifying effort of 2:19.2054.

Washington, who incurred both a weight and ride height penalty as a result of his pole setting time of 2:13.2819, established a new lap record time of 2:12.6963 during the race. Damien Flack (Porsche GT3 Cup Car) finished in 5th place with seven other examples of the German marque following in the order of Sven Burchartz, Bill Pye, Max Twigg, Paul Tresidder, Gary Dann, Ross Lilley, and Paul Bolinowsky. Peter Lucas in the Urban Arrangements Lotus Elise finished in 13th. Other than the Ferrari of John Teulan, the only other retirement was that of Matthew Turnbill (Porsche GT3 Cup Car) on lap 6 with a fluid leak, while Mark Eddy (Ferrari 360 Challenge) was a non starter.
 

In a repeat of the first race, the second round of the day saw Washington leading David Wall (RDS Wall Racing Porsche GT3 RSR) with Allan Simonsen (Consolidated Chemical Ferrari 360GT) in third followed by the Instant Foundations Lamborghini Gallardo of Ian Palmer. Sven Burchartz (Porsche GT3) improved on his first race performance with a fifth place in race 2 followed by the Porsche GT3 Cup Car of Max Twigg in 6th. 

The drive of race 2 belonged to Flack who fell back to 16th after a spin but fought back bravely to bring his Porsche GT3 Cup Car back up to a fine 7th place. Another improver was Gary Dann in the Supaloc Porsche GT3 Cup Car who finished race 2 in 8th position. Dann, a Mount Panorama debutant, qualified in 15th and finished race 1 in 10th. Ross Lilley (Porsche GT3 Cup Car) and Paul Bolinowsky (Porsche GT3) both had solid weekends finishing race two in 9th and 10th respectively.  An impressive performance was also put in by Peter Lucas in the Urban Arrangements Lotus Elise. Lucas crashed heavily on his first visit to Bathurst last year but this Easter the mountain was much kinder to him with a 13th position in race 1 and 12th in race 2.

Race 2 saw another safety car incident after three laps following the demise of Mathew Turnbull who ‘sand trapped’ the Porsche GT3 Cup Car at McPhillamy Park after spinning and brushing the wall. Paul Tresidder (Porsche GT3 Cup Car) was a retirement after nine of the 12 lap journey with a lack of drive thought to be as a result of clutch failure while Mark Eddy’s wretched weekend in the Ferrari 360 Challenge continued with another non start in race 2. John Teulan (Ferrari 430 Challenge) was also a non starter in the second race following his accident in race one at McPhillamy Park that occurred when a drive shaft broke.

2007 Australian GT Championship Positions (after 3 rounds): 1. Allan Simonsen (309); 2. Bryce Washington (273); 3. David Wall (265); 4. Damien Flack (162); 5. Peter Lucas (146.5)