TASMANIA SUPERSPRINT SUPPORTS WRAP – FRIDAY
All three support categories for the Supercars Championship Tasmania Supersprint hit the track at Symmons Plains Raceway on Friday, completing practice and qualifying before the racing begins tomorrow.
AUSSIE RACING CARS
Joshua Anderson led a narrowly separated field in Aussie Racing Cars Qualifying, recording a 1m 01.159s to best the current series leaders.
The Cooldrive Racing Camaro driver outpaced Round 1 winner Tom Hayman and race winner Cody Brewczynski to achieve pole honours, the top three split by just 0.14s.
The latter was quickest in practice, notching a 1m 01.283s.
Leigh Bowler was fourth in his first start for the year, while Anderson’s teammate Reece Chapman was fifth fastest.
Camaro cars dominated the top 10, Matt Forbes-Wilson, Anthony DiMauro, Lachlan Ward and Adam Clark all putting themselves within striking distance of the frontrunners.
Kyle Ensbey rounded out the top 10 in his Mustang.
After clocking fifth fastest in Practice, Kiwi S5000 racer Kaleb Ngatoa was 1.041s off the pace in his Euro GT spec car, ranking him 15th.
Aussie Racing Cars will be racing twice on Saturday, hitting the track first at 12:25pm AEDT.
SUPERUTES
Craig Woods qualified fastest in the SuperUte Series, topping the timesheets with a 1m 01.853s in his Toyota Hilux.
The Utes produced the slowest lap times of the three support categories but were very tightly bunched at the top, promising close and entertaining racing throughout the weekend.
Borg was second fastest in his Sieders Racing Holden Colorado, just 0.02 off the leader, while Craig Dontas also went close in his Mitsubishi Triton.
George Gutierrez and Ben Walsh were also less than 0.5s off the pace in fourth and fifth.
Layton Barker and Jaiden Maggs both drove their Mitsubishi’s into the top 10 within 1s off the benchmark, joined by Harry Gray, Rohan Barry and Richard Mork who rounded out the 10 despite not having anywhere near the pace of those ahead.
TASSIE TIN TOPS
Liam Hooper steered his Japanese Nissan Skyline R32 GTS-T to pole position for Race 1 on Saturday, topping a field full of iconic Aussie Holden and Ford machines in Qualifying.
Hooper set a 52.967s lap around the notoriously short Symmons Plains circuit to comfortably beat out the VH Commodore of Brett O’Shea by 0.931s, which was second fastest.
Another Commodore came in third, Kim Barwick a further 2s behind the two clear frontrunners.
Danny Slater drove his Torana UX1 to fourth on the grid, while another Nissan product rounded out the top 5, Chris Boyd sneaking in with his later generation Nissan R33 GTST.
A trio of Holden’s were next in the pecking order before Phillip House and David Walker ensured some variety in the top 10, achieving ninth and 10th in their BMW E30 and Datsun 1200, respectively.
Three cars that made it onto the track for practice did not appear in Qualifying.
Honni Pitt’s Lotus Exige, Mike Hamilton’s Torana and Steve Gangnell’s Commodore were all absent.
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