BRAD Schumacher let out a cheer under his helmet as he saw the chequered flag at Mount Panorama on Friday morning, but that was only the start of the celebrations after he clinched his maiden national championship.
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In crossing the line in seventh position in the second of two one-hour GT World Challenge Australia races at Mount Panorama for the week, Schumacher sealed himself the series' GT3 trophy class honours for 2021.
As he walked back through the pits there were handshakes and embraces, Schumacher sharing the triumph with his all-Bathurst crew.
"First national championship in the bag, we're stoked," Schumacher said.
"It obviously feels really good, it's an amazing feeling to achieve something you work at all year long and it's not just me, it's the guys.
"They had many late nights, there was so much to learn, there's been so much testing behind the scenes, trial and error, we've had ups and downs. But at the end of the year to take home the championship, it's all you could hope for.
"It feels amazing and to do it at Bathurst is obviously a dream come true. The beauty is that because we are here in our home town, we can now celebrate with all our friends and family."
After placing second in class in the first race of the season-concluding Bathurst round, Schumacher knew all he had to seal the national title in his maiden attempt was to finish race two.
It meant he did not push the #55 Kelso Electrical Audi to its limits - his fastest lap a 2:08.1184 effort - and he settled for third place in class behind Brett Hobson and Michael Bailey for the race, but it was an approach that kept him out of trouble.
"It was do what I had to do, obviously I had much more pace if I needed," he said.
Trouble was something that claimed three other drivers on the grid in the opening half of the race.
With just over 11 minutes gone, Peter Hackett lost the rear of the #888 Mercedes AMG GT3 while travelling at over 220km/hr and clipped the wall at Sulman Park, triggering a yellow flag.
The safety car lights went out with 38 minutes left, but on the lap which followed there was another incident up the top of the Mount.
This time Ben Porter's Porsche clipped the wall and as it bounced back across the track, it made contact with the Theo Koundouris Audi.
It triggered another yellow flag period and Schumacher, who had started ninth on the grid and was running behind that duo in 12th, revealed he only just avoided becoming collateral damage.
"I was very close to being a part of Porter and Koundouris, I was right behind those guys and whilst I came up over Skyline there were things going everywhere," he said.
"I just got through it."
After the mandatory pit stop Schumacher emerged in 11th and while both Hobson and Bailey were ahead of him, the Bathurst driver adopted a sensible approach to the remaining laps.
He kept his cool to the chequered flag with third in class good enough to seal the championship.
"By the time I managed to get past [Mark] Griffith and Scotty Taylor, Hobson had run away, so the boys got on the radio and said to me 'Keep your cool and think about the long game,'," Schumacher said.
"I saw Rosser and Bailey ahead of me having a battle and they were getting pretty gnarly together, so I was happy to just sit up, put my arms up in the arm chair and coast to home."
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