Audi claims Australian GT titles

A convincing season final for Audi in the Australian GT Championship.

Audi has won the Australian GT Championship in commanding style after a final round thriller in New Zealand. Christopher Mies clinched the driver’s title for the Jamec Pem team, while Wall Racing’s Greg Taylor and Barton Mawer wrapped up the Trophy class.

16 November, 2015

Slide 1 of 5

Audi has finished the 2015 Australian GT Championship on top in both classes after an outstanding final round in Cromwell, New Zealand. German driver Christopher Mies, was crowned driver’s champion after a stellar season, adding to his considerable successes for Audi both in Australia and around the world.

For Audi, the title was the brand’s second in Australia after Mark Eddy stamped his authority on it in 2011 – the same year Audi first dominated the Bathurst 12 hour race with its historic 1–2 finish.

In 2015 the racing was close and exciting throughout the 10 round series. From Phillip Island to Darwin and iconic tracks in between, the series moved across ‘the ditch’ to finish in New Zealand at the Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell on the South Island, with Christopher Mies – who shares the Jamec Pem car with co-driver Ryan Millier – carrying a significant lead into the final weekend of racing.

In fact the German driver arrived in New Zealand with a 65 point lead over his closest rival, Nathan Antunes, the two drivers having been the standouts throughout the 2015 season. Their jousting throughout the year has been a highlight of the racing, the pair having produced six wins between them from 10 starts and constantly setting the pace of the competition.

Going into the final round though Nathan Antunes was under no illusion that it would be anything but tough taking on a driver of Mies’ calibre with the title at stake and a significant points lead.

“I’m racing against arguably the most experienced Audi R8 driver in the world,” Antunes said ahead of the weekend.

“That guy (Mies) seems to spend his whole life in an R8.. It’s going to be a tough weekend, but I’m up for it. I had a great result there last year with Rod (Salmon), so I’ll just go out and do what I can, have a great time, and whatever happens, happens..!”

Unfortunately, an accident mid-way through the first of the two 60 minutes races on the Saturday ended Antunes race and season, his Audi unable to be repaired although Antunes himself was not injured.

But the seasoned campaigner he is, Mies put the competition to bed in the first race, a fourth place all he needed to wrap it up and claim a well deserved championship title.

“I can hardly believe that I’m champion,” Mies said of the result.

“My thanks go to Jamec PEM Racing for the fantastic year in Australia. The championship title is a team success,” he said.

Mies also dedicated his victory to all of the people of Paris after the shocking events of the night before.

Then, as icing on the cake, the German stormed home in the invitational Highlands 101 race on the Sunday finishing on the podium in second place to round out an extraordinary season in Australia.

In the hotly contested Trophy Class, three Audi teams headed into the final round with a chance of claiming outright class victory. The class leaders going into the final though, Greg Taylor and Barton Mawer, never took their eye off the championship, and cemented their place in the history books with a top 10 finish in the first to put it beyond doubt.

The pair then backed up with an outstanding eighth place finish in Sunday’s 101 lap race as a fitting end to what’s been an outstanding season for the Wall Racing team.

Commenting on the tremendous success of the Audi teams throughout the 2015 season, Head of Audi Sport customer racing, Romolo Liebchen said:

“Congratulations to Jamec PEM Racing and Christopher Mies.”

“My sincere thanks also go to the Melbourne Performance Centre that always prepared our cars perfectly for this extremely competitive series contested by as many as 13 brands. I’m already looking forward to the 2016 season that starts next February. Many customers in this important market of ours are interested in the new Audi R8 LMS.”

Slide 1 of 4

Audi claims Australian GT titles

A convincing season final for Audi in the Australian GT Championship.

The Hulk

The last lap

Audi accelerates F1 acquisition

Pioneers