Shiels soars as Ingram battles

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: July 19, 2024

Brad Shiels has pushed his 50-year-old Fiat to the top of the table in Practice 2 for the Precision National Sports Sedan Series at SMP.

As championship leader Peter Ingram suffered mechanical dramas, Shiels soared in his 1974 Fiat 124 Coupe.

Despite coming to a stop on the exit of Turn 2, Ingram was still able to finish second, three tenths behind Shiels’ 1:29.7243.

He was the only driver within a second of the leader as Steve Tamasi, Geoff Taunton and Steve Lacey made it into the top five.

There was no Mark Duggan with his Aston Martin in the garage with suspension issues surfacing from Practice 1.

After taking Practice 1, Ingram wasted no time in returning to P1 with a 1:31.7695.

This was the best part of 2s clear of Steve Lacey and Tamasi, but they did not take long to improve with the Holden Calibra cutting the deficit to three tenths.

Shiels then announced himself midway through the session by setting rapid first and second sectors and knocked Ingram off the top by three tenths, being the first in the 1m29s window.

After losing the fastest time honours, things took a bigger turn for the worse for Ingram as his Mazda crawled to a stop in the outfield at Turn 2.

Tamasi also threatened by posting a purple first sector, but backed out.

The #24 of Graham Smith had front splitter damage and was stuck in the pits, while Josh Pillars had a wild moment as his Monaro danced from side to side coming out of Turn 5.

Despite leading the way Shiels was still pushing the limits and had a big slide through the Turn 8 hairpin, but stopped his Fiat from spinning.

Few improved in the final minutes as the session had a quiet finish.

The big question is if Ingram’s Mazda will be firing again when qualifying begins at 15.55 AEST.

Image: MPix Photography

Precision National Sports Sedan Series SMP Practice 2 results

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Shiels soars as Ingram battles

There was no Mark Duggan with his Aston Martin in the garage with suspension issues surfacing from Practice 1.

After losing the fastest time honours, things took a bigger turn for the worse for Ingram as his Mazda crawled to a stop in the outfield at Turn 2.

Despite leading the way Shiels was still pushing the limits and had a big slide through the Turn 8 hairpin, but stopped his Fiat from spinning.

Precision National Sports Sedan Series SMP Practice 2 results

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