Davison by the barest of margins at Bathurst 6 Hour

Will Davison emerged fastest after an extremely tight and competitive opening day of the Bathurst 6 Hour at Mount Panorama.

Davison and fellow Supercars driver Thomas Randle both went under the 2m24s bracket in their BMW’s, covered by just eight hundredths of a second having posted their laps on their first and second flying laps respectively.

On combined times across both Friday practice sessions, Davison edged practice one pacesetter David Russell by 0.0069s and Randle – second in FP2 – by 0.08.

After the morning’s first practice session ran without interruption, Practice Two was interrupted by two red flags as there was a noticeable increase in cars that ran into mechanical trouble.

In the lead up to Practice Two, the decision was made to combine the B1 and B2 classes, as Class B2 only had one entry in the Axis Surveys BMW M3 Coupe of Richard Shinkfield/Ettore Vosolo/Chris Holdt, with Class B now containing five entries.

There was also drama for Class C runners Steve McHugh, Ian Cowley, and Adam Talbert, who were forced to skip the session as their Champ Group HSV VXR was forced to sit out the session undergoing an engine change.

The final session of the day got off to a false start after the Class C Osborne Motorsport Renault Megane of Jackson Rice ground to a halt on the out lap on the run up to The Cutting, slicing just shy of ten minutes from the hour-long session.

The second red flag for the session flew with just under half the session remaining when the Class B BMW M3 Coupe of Richard Shinkfield – formerly the sole Class B2 entry – ground to a halt in the Hell Corner escape road, requiring a tow back to the pits.

In the twenty minute interval between red flags, Davison set a 2m 23.8535s to set the fastest lap of the day in the Bruce Lynton Service BMW M3 he’ll share with Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey, whilst Randle set a 2m 23.9346s in the Yellow Pages/Race for a Cure BMW M2 Competition co-driven by Ben and Michael Kavich.

The Sherrin Rentals BMW M4 of Grant and Iain Sherrin rounded out the outright and Class X top three on a 2m 24.8726s, the only other car to dip below the 2m 25s range in Practice Two.

In the classes, the Megalife Ford Mustang Mach 1 of Jason Gommersall/Aaron Seton/Ben Gommersall topped the Class A2 runners in sixth outright on a 2m 27.7182s.

Class A1 was topped by the Harding Performance Volkwagen Golf R of Cem Yucel/Iain Salteri in seventeenth outright on a 2m31.1840s, having spent a considerable portion of the session with the bonnet up in the pits.

The Spinifex Recruiting BMW 335i of Peter O’Donnel/Matt Chahda/Gerry Mennell set the fastest time in Class B, with a 2m 35.1563s good enough for 24th outright.

The fastest car in Class C was the AC Store Volkswagen Scirocco R of James Hay/Paul Ansell/Michael Learoyd which set a 2m 39.9730s to finish in 29th outright.

The Next Step Earthworks Toyota 86 of Mitchell Wooler/Tim Barwick was the fastest Class D competitor in 32nd outright on a 2m 41.4123s.

And in Class E, the 1800 Lasagne/LK Diesel Services Mazda 3 of Andrew Jackman/Mark Taubitz/Jamie Westaway set the fastest time with a 2m 48.3603s to go 50th outright.

The Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour field is back on track for the third and final practice session of the weekend, ahead of qualifying in the afternoon.

Qualifying and a host of support races will be shown on SBS One, Fox Sports and Kayo from 12.00 AEDT.

Bathurst 6 Hour Practice 2 results

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