GARRY’S BATHURST 1000 SUPPORT WRAP – THURSDAY
DAY ONE on the Mountain at Bathurst also featured qualifying for Porsches and Touring Car Masters, supporting the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, along with practice for the other categories.
PORSCHE PAYCE CARRERA CUP AUSTRALIA
IT WAS a thrilling and tense qualifying session for round seven and it went down to the wire. On his last lap available, David Wall jumped to the top of the timesheets with a 2 minute 6.4306-second flying lap to secure pole position for race one.
Cooper Murray looked the one to beat up until that point and he ultimately finished third when Nick McBride snuck in a quick one as the chequered flag was being waved. Jordan Love was the early pacesetter but overstepped at McPhillamy Park on his final bid and finished fourth. Next was Cameron Hill ahead of Steve Richards, Dale Wood and Michael Almond with the top eight covered by 0.6 seconds.
Best to the TAG Heuer Pro Am drivers was Liam Talbot (behind Pro driver Thomas Maxwell), in eleventh ahead of Adrian Flack. Third in the class was Stephen Grove ahead of Tim Miles and Roger Lago.
In the earlier practice session Wall was fastest, despite finding the wall at McPhillamy Park right at the end of the session. McBride was second fastest ahead of Love, Murray, Hill, Almond, Wood, Richards and Flack the best of the Pro Ams. The session was red flagged for a period when Lago crashed off Skyline.
PAYNTER DIXON TOURING CAR MASTERS
A STUNNING last lap of 2 minutes 15.8408 seconds has put Steve Johnson on pole for race 17, the first for round six. The time came after a red flag period brought about by Allan Hughes (Holden Torana SL/R 5000) crashing at Skyline and Tony Anderson (Chev Monza) stopping at Griffin Bend.
Second fastest and making for an all Ford Mustang front row was Aaron Seton who was lucky to avoid serious damage when he spun out at Griffins, after Anderson was stopped there.
The best of the influx of New Zealanders and third fastest was Angus Fogg (Mustang) ahead of Ryal Harris, Hugh Gardiner and Adam Bressington. After the three Chev Camaros came Cameron Mason (Mustang) and John Bowe (Torana A9X).
Just outside the top ten were Markus Zukanovic (Ford Falcon XD), Andrew Anderson (Falcon XE), Jim Pollicina (A9X), Paul Freestone (Camaro), Bruce Williams (SL/R 5000) and Bruce Anderson (Mustang).
Johnson’s pole position in the number 17 was his 17th in TCM, was eight tenths under the previous qualifying best and his third Bathurst pole-winning effort in as many years.
TOYOTA 86 RACING SERIES
THE BENCHMARK of the day that consisted of two practice sessions before the third round qualifying tomorrow, was set very early with Luke King going sub-lap record with a 2 minutes 38.0676 seconds.
He had a 2.7s advantage of series points leader Tim Brook by the completion of the first outing before Brook was to whittle that down to 0.08s by the end of the second session.
Third fastest was Lachlan Gibbons ahead of Zane Morse, Ben Grice, Dylan Thomas, David Sieders, Luke van Herwaarde and Kane Baxter-Smith completing the top 10 of the 34 entries.
The only notable incident came late in the latter period when Richard Peasey went into the concrete wall at Forest Elbow.
ECB SUPERUTES SERIES
INITIALLY IT was Elliot Barbour in one of the Mitsubishi Tritons that looked the one to beat at round six as he was fastest in practice session one. He had around half a second’s advantage on Nathan Pretty until the Holden Colorado driver punched out an even better time in session two to be the quickest for the day.
The category had 14 entries for this round with Tom Alexander (Isuzu D-MAX) ahead of Cameron Crick (Triton) and Ben Walsh (Toyota Hilux), Matt Spratt (Colorado) and Craig Woods (Hilux). Ryal Harris (Mazda BT50) only managed eighth and retired from session two with gearbox issues.
Ninth fastest was Josh Anderson (Hilux) ahead of Graham Edwards (Triton), Chris Formosa (Ford Ranger), Bayley Hall (Ranger) and Ben Falk (BT50) whose day ended with engine failure.
DUNLOP SUPER 2 SERIES
TEARAWAY POINTS leader Bryce Fullwood was the pacesetter in the opening practice session for the fifth round, circulating Mt Panorama with a best time of 2 minutes 7.0684 seconds in his Matt White Motorsport Nissan Altima.
The second-best time was set by Tom Randle (Tickford Racing Ford Falcon FG/X) from Kurt Kostecki (Triple 8 Holden Commodore VF), Will Brown (Eggleston Motorsport VF), and the MWM Altimas driven by Tyler Everingham and Zane Goddard.
For more of the latest motorsport news pick up the current issue of Auto Action. Also make sure you follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates between issues.