Lago shines in Clipsal Australian GT opener

Roger Lago emerged victorious in the opening race of the Australian GT Championship at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide.

The Lamborghini driver ran inside the top 10 for the first half of the race before finding himself in the lead following the mandatory pit stops.

Aided by a shorter compulsory stop time, the Brisbane driver enjoyed a relatively lonely race as he took the chequered flag by 8.7s from Tekno Autosports’ Nathan Morcom.

A solid run from the Darrel Lea McLaren 650S of Klark and Tony Quinn claimed the final spot on the podium.

The brand new Mercedes AMG GT3 of Craig Baird and Scott Taylor led the early laps with the former marching into a 3.4s lead from Morcom, the #1 Audi of Geoff Emery and Nathan Antunes’ Tekno McLaren.

However, a safety car caused by Hayden Cooper who became stranded in the Turn 11 gravel trap before the pit stop window opened hampered his victory hopes.

After handing the car to Scott Taylor, the Erebus run Mercedes came home in a lowly 17th position.

Mark Griffith endured an impressive run in his Mercedes AMG GT3 to finish fourth as he made the most of his shorter pit stop time compared to the front runners.

The Lamborghini shared by Glen Wood and Justin McMillan edged the Auntes/Elliot Barbour McLaren to fifth spot in a thrilling dice to the flag.

Tony Walls settled for seventh having found himself in contention for a podium after the pits tops ahead of the Peter Hackett/Dominic Storey Eggleston Mercedes.

Marcus Marshall brought the Supabarn Supermarkets Audi R8, he shares with James Koundouris, to the finish in ninth.

Meanwhile, a stellar drive from reigning champion Christopher Mies saw the German surge from 19th after the pit stops to complete the top 10.

The Steven Richards/Max Twigg BMW M6 GT3 finished in 20th position on its race debut.

Result: Australian GT Championship Clipsal 500, Race 1 

1	JBS Australia	Roger Lago (QLD)	Lamborghini R-EX	24	36:11.4833
2	Tekno	Nathan Morcom	McLaren 650S GT3	24	36:20.2232
3	Darrell Lea	K.Quinn/T.Quinn	McLaren 650S GT3	24	36:24.1246
4	Hogs Breath Cafe/Griffith Co	Mark Griffith (QLD)	Mercedes Benz AMG GT	24	36:27.8424
5	Interlloy M Motorsport	J.McMillan/G.Wood	Lamborghini R-EX	24	36:28.9686
6	Tekno	N.Antunes/E.Barbour	McLaren 650S GT3	24	36:29.1469
7	Objective Racing	Tony Walls (QLD)	McLaren 650S GT3	24	36:30.7912
8	Eggleston Motorsport	P.Hackett/D.Storey	Mercedes Benz AMG GT	24	36:31.0112
9	Supabarn Supermarkets	J.Koundouris/M.Marshall	Audi R8 LMS	24	36:31.5607
10	JAMEC PEM Racing	C.Mies/G.Emery	Audi R8 LMS	24	36:31.6227
11	Eggleston Motorsport	Matthew Solomon	Mercedes Benz AMG GT	24	36:32.3996
12	McLaren Melbourne	J.Webb/G.Denyer	McLaren 650S GT3	24	36:39.6702
13	HBS Motorsports	Simon Ellinghham (NZ)	Audi R8 Ultra	24	36:57.6912
14	Modena Engineering	Ricky Capo (VIC)	BMW Z4 GT3	24	37:00.9491
15	AMAC Motorsport	Andrew Macpherson (NSW)	Porsche 997 GT3-R	24	37:05.3763
16	Scott Taylor Motorsport	S.Taylor/C.Baird	Mercedes Benz AMG GT	24	37:05.7987
17	Team ASR	Ash Samadi	Mercedes Benz AMG SLS	24	37:09.9507
18	Koala Motorsport	B.Griguol/T.Macrow	Ferrari F430 GT3	24	37:10.7614
19	SR Motorsport	S.Richards/M.Twigg	BMW M6 GT3	24	37:18.3087
20	JAMEC PEM Racing	Steven McLaughlan (VIC)	Audi R8 LMS	23	36:13.7265
21	Skwirk Online Education	Rod Salmon (NSW)	Audi R8 Ultra	23	36:30.6903
22	Veloce Motorsportn – ULX110	Keith Wong (SA)	Porsche GT3 Cup Car	23	36:31.9513
23	Adina Apartment Hotels	Greg Taylor (NSW)	Audi R8 LMS	23	36:39.4537
DNF	Waltec Motorsport	J.Martin/A.Tebb	Porsche 997 GT3-R	15	28:23.4653
DNF	M Motorsport	Hayden Cooper (QLD)	Lamborghini Gallardo	5	7:24.2599
EXC	Taplin Real Estate	Dean Canto (SA)	Lamborghini Gallardo