A LAP record, topping a qualifying session and battling former Bathurst 1000 winner Chaz Mostert for an outright podium - it's little wonder Brad Schumacher was delighted with his debut in the GT World Challenge Australia series.
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On the back of a 2020 season which saw Schumacher spend limited time behind the wheel of his new Audi R8 LMS Ultra due to the impact of COVID-19, he and his Schumacher Motorsport crew headed to Phillip Island for the first round of the GT series unsure of what to expect.
It was not the easiest initiation - Schumacher copped a post-race penalty after race one and did not finish the second one-hour sprint race - but there were a whole host of positives for the team.
It included topping a qualifying session, setting a GT3 Amateur class lap record for Phillip Island and a second in class podium for the opening race of the season.
"For us obviously this is our first foray into the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS, our first national series," Schumacher said.
"You really are rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the business and it just I guess brings your driver standard up to a new level altogether.
"They don't just let your regular Joe Blow into this type of scene and to bring my driving standard up so I can enter into a series like this and perform well and get results, I'm just chuffed."
What made the debut even more special was that, unlike previous seasons, in 2021 the Schumacher Motorsport team consists entirely of Bathurst residents.
"It is a pretty big step into the deep end for us," Schumacher said.
"There were some pretty big names getting thrown around and we didn't really know where we'd stand."
The team ran in the top five outright and was quickest in class in both practice sessions on Friday without using green tyres. Instead they waited to use new rubber in qualifying and that tactic paid off.
In qualifying one not only was Schumacher the quickest of the GT3 Am class cars, but he topped the outright time sheet with a 1:30.23.14. That lap - in which he averaged 178 km/hr - impressed plenty in pit lane.
The second qualifying session saw teams permitted to use their professional drivers, which meant Schumacher was battling with the likes of Bathurst 1000 winners Jamie Whincup, Garth Tander and Mostert.
The Bathurst driver was once again quickest in class and his pace was good enough to place him fifth outright as well with a 1:29.9545.
"We couldn't believe it, it was pretty amazing actually to top that first session. You have teams like Triple Eight, Grove, Maranello Ferrari, Garth Walden Racing, all these big teams and we put our car from a little ole Bathurst team on the top step in quali one," he said.
"There were a lot of people raising eyebrows up and down pit lane. That was a pretty cool feeling.
"It was great to hear Luke Youlden mention that the lap time we did in qualifying ... when our model was the current model, that was the time the Germans were doing at Phillip Island when they were brought over by Audi, the professional drivers back then, so Youlden said it was really impressive to get that time."
In the first of the two one-hour races, Schumacher overcame "a bit of a doozey" pit stop during an early yellow-flag period to cross the line fourth outright and first in class.
He had actually been on for an outright podium - Tander and Whincup the only two men ahead of him - before Mostert pulled off a passing move on the final lap.
However, a 10-second post race penalty for passing under the yellow flag dropped him to second in class.
Schumacher said after reviewing the in-car footage of the passing move in question on Tony Bates, it was clear he had made the error but at the time he was unaware.
"We were in the heat of the pass between turn 11 and 12, coming up the insider at over 240 kilometres an hour you're not looking at the flag marshal on the outside of the circuit at that time," he said.
In the second race on Sunday, Schumacher enjoyed "a cracking start" and this time he and his crew nailed their compulsory pit stop.
He was running fourth outright behind Prince Jefri Ibrahim in the Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG GT3 he shared with Whincup when a safety period was triggered.
Once the race was green flagged the Bathurst driver was eager to improve his position, but when trying to make a passing move down the outside into turn three he struck trouble.
"I unfortunately learnt the physics of aero wash in a big way," he said.
"Coming out from under the tail of his slipstream I've then got a big aero wash and basically I've lost the rear of the car and spun into the gravel trap and DNF'd the race.
"This is a total learning curve, it's something that as a driver I've never experienced in the past. These GT3 cars have such huge aero packages and punch such a huge hole into the air.
"Once you pull out from the side of the car you get a huge amount of drag, you're back out in the air and all of a sudden you get a huge amount of aero and downforce on the front of the car and that throws a massive imbalance on the rear of the car.
"When you're in a straight line it doesn't matter so much, but when you're heading into a really fast turn and you pop out ... it unsettled the rear so badly it was like an instant snap that was unavoidable, I've never felt anything like it."
Though that incident cost Schumacher a potential class victory, it taught him an important lesson. He feels it will help him in his bid for more good results come round two of the series at the Bathurst 6 Hour.
"We're definitely happy with our performance over the weekend, no doubt about it," he said.
"It certainly gives us confidence heading into Bathurst, especially with Bathurst being our home track."
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