Brendon Leitch will close out his first Fanatec GT World Challenge Powered by AWS campaign at one of the world’s most iconic circuits, Mount Panorama.
The New Zealander is set to race at the famed circuit for the first time on November 8-10 at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International with teammate and fellow Kiwi Tim Miles.
Leitch will get his first laps of Mount Panorama in the Dayle ITM Audi R8 LMS GT3 run by Melbourne Performance Centre on Thursday.
Leitch had his first look of The Mountain on foot with a track walk on Wednesday.
“There are only a few tracks that really get the hairs on the back of your neck standing up,” Leitch explained.
“I’ve been pretty fortunate to drive at a lot of the world’s craziest circuits, but the track walk reminded me of one in particular. Mount Panorama is really just a mini Nurburgring. The elevation gain is crazy and there are walls everywhere, so there is no room for mistakes.
“Both circuits were opened within about 10 years of each other and both have barely changed in the nearly 100 years since.
“Coming down the side of the mountain through the Dipper and down to Forest’s Elbow really reminds me of fuchsrohre at the Nordschleife. Both sections are really similar with huge commitment, high compression, and massive load.
“Mount Panorama is about a fifth of the length of the Nordschleife that they use for the 24-hour race but they’re both about as crazy as each other.”
Leitch and Miles currently sit fifth in the GT World Challenge Australia standings, 46 points in arrears of Arise Racing’s Liam Talbot and Chaz Mostert.
The Audi duo are only 12 points behind third place pair Elliott Schutte and Jaxon Evans in the other Arise Racing Ferrari 296.
Leitch is optimistic he and Miles can overcome that deficit and walk away with a trophy in their first season together.
“People say you can’t pass here, but I’ve been watching a lot of Bathurst 12 Hour highlights and I’ve definitely got a bit of inspiration,” said Leitch.
“Hopefully we won’t need to worry about that though if we qualify well and start up the pointy end of the field.
“Ultimately, I just want to have a clean weekend and get the best results possible. We’re not really in the fight for the title win but we still stand a good chance of finishing third overall.”
Paid Practice gets underway on Thursday before two Free Practice sessions on Friday. Qualifying takes place on Saturday morning at 10:15am NZST before the first one-hour Race 1 at 2:45pm. Race 2 on Sunday is scheduled to start at 4:55pm.
