It takes just one minute for Brad Schumacher to get to the legendary Mount Panorama circuit from his workshop and he lives on the fabled hill, but he’ll be praying to the gods this weekend for a good result in what is a very competitive Am Class field.
Luck has not always been on the Bathurst local’s side at the circuit much revered worldwide having endured multiple high-speed crashes including one in the first Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS event.
Driving his GT Trophy winning Audi R8 LMS GT3 Ultra along Conrod Straight during practice a tyre delaminated sending Schumacher into the wall. What followed was a miraculous rebuild effort by his team with the help of Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia to ensure he completed the rest of the weekend.
Since then, Schumacher has enjoyed improved luck culminating in finishing second at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International alongside friend and mentor Tim Slade.
This season marks the first full-campaign in his upgraded Audi competing in the Am Class featuring a very impressive entry in 2023.
“We’ve raced in the GT Trophy Class the last few years where we won in 2021 and was second last year, so we thought we’d upgrade the car to jump up in the outright Am Class,” Schumacher explained.
“It’s a really tough field this year and there are some very good competitors in this class, but we’ve got a few tickets on ourselves, we think we’ve got the speed, so we just need everything to play out the right way.
“Hopefully the gods of Mount Panorama are on our side.”
Living in Bathurst is not an asset according to Schumacher, well maybe bar one.
“It’s always nice to race at home,” he said. “Of course we don’t have far to go and there is no real advantage for anybody here in Bathurst because you can’t test, but for me the thing on my side is I can sleep in my own bed and be with my family every night, which is nice.”
All of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS action can be seen live and ad-break free on Stan Sport. Sign up now for a free seven-day trial stan.com.au/motorsport.
Free-to-air viewers will be able to see Saturday’s races live and free on 9Gem from 2-5pm.
