Van Gisbergen to race in Aus GT at The Bend

Shane van Gisbergen features in the 21-car field which will tackle next weekend’s Australian Endurance Championship opener at The Bend in a two-part race.

The 68-lap race will be split across Saturday twilight and Sunday morning at Australia’s newest permanent circuit.

The starting grid will be set on the basis of average times for each car’s two drivers before the first 24 laps of the race take place from late Saturday afternoon.

On the following morning, the race picks up where it left off the evening before with the final 44 laps.

The program makes for a total of nearly 530km of racing around the 7.77km GT Circuit layout.

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Among the 21-car field are 16 GT3 cars and the five previously announced GT4s.

Van Gisbergen partners Tony Quinn in a McLaren 650S as one of several current or former Supercars Championship drivers.

David Reynolds confirmed this week that he will tackle all three AEC races of the Australian GT season with current championship leader Jaie Robson, while Cameron McConville’s return in a Lamborghini will also take place at The Bend.

John Bowe is back behind the wheel of a Ferrari at Maranello Motorsport, while Tony D’Alberto, Warren Luff, Dean Canto, Steve Richards, and Craig Baird are also in familiar environments.

Luke Youlden will share a Mercedes-AMG with Yasser Shahin off the back of his impressive performance in an ultimately frustrating Bathurst 12 Hour campaign in February.

Action begins with Practice on Friday April 13.

Entry list: Australian Endurance Championship Round 1 (Australian GT Championship Round 2), The Bend Motorsport Park Updated

Num	Team/Sponsor	Drivers	Car	Class
1	Valvoline	Geoff Emery Garth Tander	Audi R8 LMS	Championship
3	Ah Apartments	Ash Samadi Dylan O’Keeffe	Audi R8 LMS	Championship
4	BP Ultimate	TBA TBA	BMW M4 GT4	GT4
6	Timken Zagame Motorsport	Adrian Deitz Cameron McConville	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	Championship
7	Mariani Beef Jerky	Tony Quinn Shane van Gisbergen	Mclaren 650S GT3	Championship
8	WM Waste Management	Max Twigg Tony D’Alberto	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Championship
11	Objective Racing	Tony Walls Warren Luff	McLaren 650S GT3	Championship
19	Hogs Breath Café / Griffith Corporation	Mark Griffith Todd O’Brien	Ginetta GT4	GT4
24	KFC/Ctech Laser/Moveitnet/B&B	Tony Bates Daniel Gaunt	Audi R8 LMS	Championship
29	Haemokinesis / Trofeo Estate / FreeM	Jim Manolios Dean Canto	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	Championship
48	Interlloy / M Motorsport	Justin McMillan Glenn Wood	Reiter KTM X-Bow	GT4
50	Interlloy / M Motorsport	David Crampton Trent Harrison	Reiter KTM X-Bow	GT4
59	Total Oil / Opti-Coat / Logitech	Fraser Ross Duvashen Padayachee	McLaren 650S GT3	Championship
63	Eggleston Motorsport	Peter Hackett Jake Fouracre	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Championship
67	JMG / Bilstein	Jeremy Gray Andrew Miedecke	Aston Martin Vantage GT4	GT4
88	Maranello Motorsport	Peter Edwards John Bowe	Ferrari 488 GT3	Championship
98	Aussie Driver Search	Jaie Robson David Reynolds	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Championship
100	BMW Team SRM	Steve Richards Michael Almond	BMW M6 GT3	Championship
222	Scott Taylor Motorsport	Scott Taylor Craig Baird	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Championship
777	The Bend Motor Sport Park	Yasser Shahin Luke Youlden	Mercedes-AMG GT3	Championship
911	Walkinshaw GT3	Liam Talbot John Martin	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Championship

Schedule: Australian Endurance Championship Round 1 (Australian GT Championship Round 2)

Time	Session	Length/Distance
Friday April 13
1535	Practice	60mins
Saturday April 14
1230	Driver A Qualifying	30mins
1315	Driver B Qualifying	30mins
1700	Race Part 1	24 laps
Sunday April 15
1040	Race Part 2	44 laps