An eventful visit to The Bend see advantages and disadvantages for the AMR racers
Monday, May 10, 2021
For some reason, a dramatic and exciting race during the mixed conditions that was Race 1 was not streamed to the wider global audience but at least Race 2 was with the events of the weekend making for some significant changes to the Championship standings so far.
Going into this round with a thirty-point advantage in the Championship Am class for Tony Quinn, a race win from the #51 Lamborghini crew of McPherson/Porter diminished that slightly but another P2 class position from the Scotsman and his 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT3 at least maintained momentum in his successive string of podium finishes so far.
Michael Bailey meanwhile had found his feet somewhat aboard his older generation V12 Vantage GT3 after two good drives last time out at Bathurst and off the back of a disastrous opening round at Phillip Island to at least get some Trophy Class points on the board. Although Race 1 was only to reward him with a lowly class finish (despite the conditions), confidence and speed was building within the #38 car.
Sundays Race 2 was back to what we expect for Australia with blue skies and warming temperatures as the pack went four wide into turn 1 before the #7 and #38 cars finally consolidated their P10 and P11 places respectively.
Fifteen minutes in and a heart in the mouth moment for Bailey as he came out of one corner wide and onto the still rain-soaked grass before recovering to almost immediately challenge Quinn for position ahead of their imminent pit stops.
Beating Quinn out of pit lane by virtue of a lesser pit stop minimum time, Bailey was now up to P10 overall and some eleven seconds ahead of Quinn as ‘issues’ mounted within the bright yellow Aston. Just as the race winners were taking the chequered flag, Quinn was grinding to a halt on track having run out of fuel whilst Bailey would take his best result of the season so far in P10 overall and P5 in class.
With the #51 Lamborghini taking their second class win of the weekend, these results saw Quinn drop down to P3 in class in the Championship standings – now five points behind the #51 crew with Bailey climbing up to P9 in the trophy Class – along way still behind the leader!
Next round is at Sandown in mid-September.
Photo credits – GTWCA / Teams
