A birthday win for Talbot alongside Day for the first time in GT World Challenge Australia

Having jetted into Australia on the back of his own class win within the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup round in Misano in Italy last weekend, Day was welcomed by some very cold and wet conditions for his series debut within a team he has already raced with a the 12hrs of Bathurst earlier in the year.

Earlier qualifying had seen Talbot start Saturday’s race opener from the second row of the grid which saw a very ‘elbows out’ opening lap to the race that saw the #1 move up top second to sit comfortably as the race settled. A Safety Car for a car in the gravel saw those gaps removed as the race went back to green still ten minutes short of the pit stop window.

Talbot would later be issued with a driver standards warning for rear end contact with the #888 Audi as he looked for a way passed.

Eventually handing over to Day, the #1 car would assume the race lead after the #888 had to serve both a success time penalty from the previous race weekend and an additional five seconds for their lap one overtake of then pole setter to gain a position off track, but Day would immediately have multiple cars on his tail.

Unfortunately for the Brit, two separate mistakes on track saw him first loose the lead before then spinning out from fourth having ridden the exit kerb on turn one to eventually finish a disappointing (for them) P8.

Race two on Sunday was something entirely different as rain immediately prior to the start put all the fourteen cars onto full wets and kept them that way during the entirety of the hour-long race.

As usual, Day started this one from his qualifying position of P7 to run through an early Safety Car (for a car stranded on track after contact with the barrier) to pass an error free stint this time around over to Talbot from P6.

As the rainfall again intensified, Talbot quickly gained track position from the start of his stint to assume the overall race lead with just twelve minutes remaining but as the track conditions deteriorated, the #888 Audi was also hunting him down.

Despite side by side contact between the two cars going into the final lap, Talbot was finally able to demonstrate his capabilities within the AMR Vantage GT3 for the #1 crew to claim their first ever race win within the GT World Challenge Australia Series as the team now looks forward to the next round from The Bend at the beginning of September but as Day now flies back to Europe for the next round of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup from France this weekend coming.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media