Shahin holds off Tander in Aus GT Race 2

Yasser Shahin delivered a surprise victory in the second Australian GT Championship race at Phillip Island.

The Australian GT rookie led the early stages having started from the front row before dropping to fourth ahead of the mandatory pit stops.

Shahin fought valiantly against an array of professional drivers in the opening stint before eventually succumbing to Dean Canto (Lamborghini) and Craig Baird (Mercedes).

After taking his compulsory pit stop from fourth, Shahin then launched an attack on the lead group after rejoining the race in the same position.

The South Australian managed to pass the M Motorsport Lamborghini of Glen Wood for the lead in the final five minutes of the race.

Wood had no answer for Shahin who opened up a healthy lead, as the Jamec Pem Racing Audi of Garth Tander closed in on the top two after a storming second stint.

In the end, Shahin took the chequered flag from a hard charging Tander who scythed his way from 13th during his run.

Wood was left to settle for third in the Gallardo he shared with Justin McMillan.

The Tekno Autosports McLaren of Matt Kingsley and Grant Denyer produced a solid drive throughout to finish fourth.

Equally as impressive was former Australian Formula 3 driver Ricky Capo who ran inside the top 10 for the entire race, ending up in fifth spot at the wheel of the BMW Z4.

Meanwhile, Liam Talbot’s return to Australian GT yielded a sixth place finish in the Audi he shared with Jake Fouracre.

Eggleston Motorsport’s Peter Hackett ran strongly in the second stint to claim seventh ahead of the Scott Taylor/Craig Baird Mercedes and the Cameron McConville/Adrian Deitz Ferrari 458 GT3.

Race one winner and pole-sitter Nathan Morcom ran as high as fifth in the opening stint, but was left to fight back from 20th after the pit stops to round out the top 10.

Shane van Gisbergen was the star of the opening half of the race as he secured the lead on the second lap which he held until the pit stops.

The Kiwi handed the car to Klark Quinn in 21st position. The former Australian GT champion could only recover to 16th spot in the remainder of the race.

Meanwhile, the SRM BMW M6 GT3 looked to be on course for a second top 10 finish before a problem saw it enter the pits in the closing stages.

Canto was another driver to miss out on a strong result as a mechanical issue saw him retire the Taplin Lamborghini while involved in a lead group battle in the first half of the race.

The race was punctuated by two Safety Car periods. The first was caused by the stranded Walkinshaw Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, while an off from the Miedecke Aston Martin prompted the second deployment.

Australian GT will be back in action on Sunday for the inaugural round of the Australian Endurance Championship.

Speedcafe.com will broadcast the round in its entirety.

Result: Australian GT Championship Race 2

1	The Bend Motorsport	Yasser Shahin (SA)	Lamborghini Gallardo	34	01:00:08.8704
2	JAMEC PEM Racing	S.McLaughlin/G.Tander	Audi R8 LMS	34	01:00:09.3560
3	Interlloy M Motorsport	J.McMillan/G.Wood	Lamborghini R-EX	34	01:00:10.6431
4	McLaren Melbourne	G.Denyer/M.Kingsley	McLaren 650s GT3	34	01:00:18.4061
5	Modena Engineering	Ricky Capo (Vic)	BMW Z4 GT3	34	01:00:21.5560
6	Maranello Motorsport	L.Talbot/J.Fouracre	Audi R8 LMS Ultra	34	01:00:45.7355
7	Eggleston Motorsport	P.Hackett/D.Storey	Mercedes AMG SLS-GT3	34	01:00:48.0400
8	Scott Taylor Motorsport	S.Taylor/C.Baird	Mercedes AMG SLS-GT3	34	01:00:49.9828
9	Maranello Motorsport	A.Deitz/C.McConville	Ferrari 458 GT3	34	01:00:51.0998
10	DPO	Nathan Morcom (Qld)	McLaren 650S GT3	34	01:00:51.5592
11	JAMEC PEM Racing	M.Molina/T.Bates	Audi R8LMS	34	01:00:54.4503
12	Bondi Wholefoods	Ash Samadi (Vic)	Mercedes AMG SLS-GT3	34	01:01:01.9657
13	Maranello Motorsport	T.D’Alberto/G.Smythe	Ferrari 458 GT3	34	01:01:04.1510
14	JBS Australia	Roger Lago (Qld)	Lamborghini R-EX	34	01:01:05.2844
15	Darrell Lea	T.Quinn/D.Gaunt	Aston Martin Vantage	34	01:01:05.4745
16	Darrell Lea	K.Quinn/S.Van Gisbergen	McLaren 650S GT3	34	01:01:07.4449
17	Objective Racing	Tony Walls (Qld)	McLaren 6505 GT3	34	01:01:16.7486
18	Supabarn Supermarkets	J.Koundouris/M.Marshall	Audi R8 LMS	34	01:01:19.8432
19	Maranello Motorsport	Peter Edwards (Vic)	Ferrari 488 GT3	34	01:01:28.8362
20	Performance West Motorsport	A.Rullo/P.Rullo	Lamborghini Gallardo	34	01:01:32.6941
21	Fastway Couriers	S.Ellingham/T.Miles	Audi R8 Ultra	34	01:01:37.2381
22	Taplin Real Estate	A.Taplin/D.Canto	Lamborghini Gallardo	33	01:00:18.3261
23	GT Motorsport	G.Taylor/M.Bonanomi	Audi R8 LMS	33	01:00:18.3989
24	Beechwood / SLR / Buildmap	N.Antunes/E.Barbour	McLaren 650S GT3	33	01:01:00.1869
25	MARC GT	M.Haber/B.Spengler	BMW AG M6 GT3	32	01:01:07.8560
DNF	SR Motorsport	S.Richards/M.Twigg	BMW M6 GT3	26	48:33.5181
DNF	Miedecke Motor Group	Andrew Miedecke (NSW)	Aston Martin Vantage	9	17:29.6346
DNF	Walkinshaw GT3	Aaron Tebb	Porsche 911 GT3-R	1	1:42.5609
DNF	AMAC Motorsport	Brad Shiels (NSW)	Porsche 997 GT-R