Perth Australian GT: Talbot cruises to Race 1 win

Talbot ran at the back end of the top five in the first stint of the one-hour race, jumping into the lead at the stops before waltzing to the first win of the weekend ahead of McLaren drivers Fraser Ross and Tony Walls.

The first stint of the race was all about the Audis, Ash Walsh holding a steady lead while Kelvin van der Linde and Dan Gaunt scrapped over second spot.

But the race was turned on its head when Greg Taylor’s R8 suffered a fiery engine failure at Turn 1 a little before the half-hour mark, the resulting Safety Car coinciding with the pit window opening.

That meant the whole field dived into pitlane, McLaren driver Walls emerging in the lead. It didn’t last long, though, Talbot barging his way past ay Turn 6 on the first lap after the restart, Ross pulling the same move a lap later to demote Walls to third.

While Talbot controlled the early stages of the second stint, Geoff Emery was the big mover. Having taken over from van der Linde he was back in seventh on the restart, but quickly worked his way back to second.

However with less than 20 minutes to go Emery was slapped with a drive-through penalty, a result of van der Linde having passed Gaunt under yellows right before the stops in the first stint. That dumped him back down in seventh, but with plenty of speed to work his way back through.

He was never going to catch Talbot, though. The Porsche driver cruised his way right through the second stint of the race to take a well-deserved victory ahead of Ross and Walls.

Emery recovered to finish – running side-by-side with Walls to the line – despite a lengthy stint bottled up behind backmarker Max Twigg, while James Koundouris finished fifth off the back of Walsh’s impressive first stint.

Roger Lago saw his points lead take a big hit thanks to an early mistake at Turn 6. In a scrap with fellow Lamborghini driver Pete Major for fourth spot, Lago wound up beached on the outside of the corner after a spin, his race over after just three laps.