Australian GT Championship

The new Audi R8 LMS has put in a strong showing at the start of the CAMS Australian GT Championship with James Koundouris taking a race win in Adelaide. Koundouris and Marcus Marshall, driving the Superbarn Supermarkets R8 LMS held out strong opposition and avoided no shortage of carnage on the Adelaide street circuit to win the second of the three race season opener.

In second place, another Melbourne Performance Centre prepared Audi, driven by last year’s champion Christopher Mies and Geoff Emery made it 1–2 for the new R8 LMS.

Christopher Mies was red hot over the weekend, setting not only a new lap record, but a new race lap record, but unfortunate accidents prevented him from achieving a better overall result for the weekend.

After his win in the second race, James Koundouris was also well placed to capitalise in the third and final heat to take the overall points for the weekend. Unfortunately Koundouris was taken out of contention for race 3 when Peter Hackett’s Mercedes made contact with him and ended his race on the opening lap, leading a prolonged safety car period.

Nevertheless, the speed of the Audis was impressive despite the few incidents and bodes well for the season ahead.

“We definitely had the speed this weekend, as the time sheets show,” said defending champion Chris Mies, who shares the Jamec Pem car with Geoff Emery.

“Unfortunately we didn’t convert them into good enough results,” he said, although he was very pleased with the way the car performed and its potential for the season.

“We have a superb package. The team perfectly prepared the Audi. The car is really strong on the brakes and quick in both slow and fast turns.”

The weekend’s racing was only the second outing for the new Audi R8 LMS in Australia after making its debut at Mount Panorama last month in the Bathurst 12 hour endurance race.

Certainly the race win in Adelaide as well as the lap records send a clear message as to the Audi’s potential and promise and exciting 2016 season.

Round Two will see the GT Championship move to Melbourne in just under two weeks where there will be four heats raced over the Australian Grand Prix weekend at Albert Park.