Albert Park Australian GT: Van der Linde unstoppable in Race 3

After yesterday’s all-Am race, two-driver crews switched back to their Pros for today’s third 25-minute race of the weekend.

Out front it was all about the Audis, with New Zealander Daniel Gaunt sprinting away at the start in the KFC R8 with van der Linde in the MPC-run Audi in hot pursuit.

The pair ran nose-to-tail for the first 15 minutes, van der Linde finally taking his chance and diving past Gaunt at Turn 13 with 10 minutes of the race left to run.

Once in front he was able to gap Walsh, pulling out a little over two seconds on the next lap before easing the lead out to just over seven seconds by the finish.

It is van der Linde’s second win of the weekend, having inherited the Race 1 victory after Walsh was penalised post-race for a jump start on Thursday.

Gaunt finished second in this morning’s race, while David Russell (JBS Lamborghini) and Walsh (Supabarn Audi) staged a heated battle over the final spot on the podium.

Having been shuffled back to fifth on the opening lap, Walsh recovered to be back on the tail of the top three within a couple of laps. With a little over five minutes to go he got past Russell to make it an Audi 1-2-3 out front – only to run wide at the penultimate corner a lap later while trying to nab second from Gaunt.

Lewis Williamson finished fifth in the Tekno McLaren, ahead of Dean Fiore (Hallmarc Audi), Cameron McConville (Zagame Lamborghini), and Steve Richards (SRM BMW).