SYDNEY MOTORSPORT PARK LAP RECORD UNDER THREAT AT WTAC

Sydney Motorsport Park lap record under threat at WTAC – Photo: Supplied

INDICATIONS ARE that the outright lap record at Sydney Motorsport Park could be bettered tomorrow at the Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge following some blistering the opening day times.

Bart Mawer was four-tenths outside the time that won him the event last year in the RP968 Porsche with the promise of more to come. His best of 1 minute 20.214 seconds was just over a second outside of Nico Hulkenburg’s 1min 19.142s set in the A1 GP Lola Zytek in 2007.

On his last run today, Mawer was on target for a ‘19’ after the first two sectors. “I mucked up turn 8 and 9 and the car just cut out after I crossed the start/finish line,” he said.

“The car which hasn’t run since here last year, is very different from what we ran then,” he added. The front aero and suspension has been revised and the Billet engine sits lower in the chassis.

Driving the MCA Suspension Hammerhead Nissan Silvia, Andre Heimgartner remains confident he too will be in the 19s bracket after his first day of competition in the WTAC. “It’s a great event, very relaxed.

“We haven’t done many laps and are still building up, developing the car and it will be quicker,” he added after a best of 1min 22.662.

After missing the opening session, Garth Walden was third and was in the 23s straight out the box in the newly-built version two of the Tilton Racing Mitsubishi EVO. “We ran on old tyres today but it was a good time as the track was very warm,” Walden said.

Alx Danielsson had a troubled lead up in Revline Racing Porsche 968 GT1 with power steering and brake bias issues before posting a 25 and making it four Royal Purple Pro Class cars at the top of the times.

Brad Shiels (Guyer Earthworks Nissan Skyline GTR) and Matt Longhurst (Integrated Motorsport Skyline) are set for a tremendous GCG Open Class battle with less than half a second between them as well as being fifth and sixth outright. Rob Nguyen (Dream Projects Australian Silvia), Nick Bathes (V-Sport Toyota 86) and Steve Johnson (WBT Racing Skyline) were next placed in the class.

Best place in the Hi-Octane Direct Pro-Am Class was Kosta Pohurokov (Tilton Racing EVO) in seventh outright ahead of Sami Sivonen (R8 1:1 Audi) and Kunihoko Bando (B-Active Racing Toyota Soarer), Richard Perini (991 Racing/PR Technology Ginetta G55) and Gustaf Burström (Revline Racing Porsche 968).

The most standard of the classes, the Haltech Clubsprints, was headed up by Brett Dickie (Elusive Racing Honda Integra) over Ben Schoots (Harrop Engineering Toyota 86), Jamal Assaad (Evolution Racing Spares EVO), Nik Kalis (Metropole EVO) and Trent Grubel (DC Jap Automotive Subaru WRX STi).

In the Turbosmart Flying 500 Workshop Battle at the midday break, Lance Warren recorded the fastest time of 272kmh in his Skyline ahead of Enzo Guarinoni (EVO 9) and Josh Khoury (Skyline). In the evening the International Drifting Cup presented by Garrett – Advancing Motion kicked off with pool face offs in two-car tandem battles.

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