Twigg Triumphs in Townsville Aus GT Race 3

Max Twigg has won the final race of Round 4 of the Australian GT Championship at the Watpac Townsville 400.

Duvashen Padayachee was closing the margin after the compulsory pit stops cycle, but not quickly enough as he and Ash Walsh finished second, while third place sealed the round win for Race 2 winner Glen Wood.

The first half of the race saw an enthralling battle between the Audi R8s of Kelvin van der Linde (#74 Jamec Pem Racing) and Walsh (#44 Supabarn Racing).

Wood took the lead from the rolling start and while van der Linde got past at Turn 13 on the opening lap, he was out-dragged by the #48 M Motorsport Lamborghini R-EX up Boundary Street.

A highly aggressive van der Linde made a huge lunge just around the corner at Turn 2 and while he passed Wood, they both went wide and let Walsh take the lead.

The top two quickly put a few seconds on Wood but stuck to each other like glue.

Van der Linde went for another dive at Turn 2 on Lap 5 but Walsh executed the switchback to hold the lead.

The pair repeated the manoeuvres on Lap 7, this time making side-to-side contact under brakes at Turn 3 as they attempted to sort themselves out.

However, van der Linde got the move right next time around and quickly put nearly 0.9s on Walsh by the end of Lap 8.

Facing a five second longer compulsory pit stop due to driver seedings, van der Linde gradually pulled away but Walsh stayed close enough for his co-driver Padayachee to exit pit lane ahead of Geoff Emery when the top two pitted together at the end of Lap 17.

Pitting a lap later, Twigg (#8 WM Waste Management Mercedes AMG GT) emerged with the lead of the motor race from Padayachee, Wood, and Emery.

Twigg held a six second lead and while Padayachee was clearly quicker, he wasn’t quick enough to put car #44 back into the lead.

Twigg took the chequered flag just under 2.5s ahead after 32 laps, with the next three holding position from their pit stops.

Liam Talbot (#911 Walkinshaw Porsche 911 GT3-R) spent most of the first stint of the race in fourth, emerged from the pits ninth, and gradually got back to fifth, retaining his championship lead.

Roger Lago (#23 JBS Lamborgihini R-EX), Ash Samadi (#3 ASR Audi R8), Scott Taylor (#222 STM Mercedes AMG GT), Tony Quinn (#7 Darrell Lea McLaren 650S), and Marc Cini (#9 Hallmarc Audi R8) rounded out the top 10, with Steven Richards/James Bergmuller (#100 Laser Plumbing BMW M6) 12th.

In other news no penalties were issued as a result of the Race 1 crash which saw Tony Bates hospitalised.

Bates escaped serious injury but was sidelined for the rest of the weekend.

Round 2 of the Australian Endurance Championship will be held at the Red Rooster Sydney Super Sprint on August 18-20.

Round 5 of the Australian GT Championship takes place at the Sandown 500 on September 15-17.

Results: Race 3, Round 4, Townsville