Monochrome GT4 Australia began its EVENTelec GT Festival Queensland campaign on Friday morning, with the strong field of 28 cars getting important laps in a wet session at Queensland Raceway.
In the end though, it was Method Motorsport who reigned supreme in both Silver Cup and Am Cup, while the returning Buckby Motorsport topped the Silver-Am Cup.
Silver Cup
Method Motorsport’s Max Geoghegan and Tom Hayman went fastest overall in the opening practice of the weekend after the latter produced an impressive run of laps in the final minutes to snatch top spot from Daniel Price.
The duo completed 26 laps during the 40-minute session and it was Geoghegan’s final one that saw the McLaren Artura GT4 go quickest – beating the next best Silver entry, Jake Camilleri, by more than a second.
Behind the wheel of the Gomersall Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4, Camilleri posted his fastest lap time of the session on his penultimate lap, ousting the Purdie Racing Audi R8 GT4 of Blake Purdie and Price in the process.
Up until the final five minutes of Practice 1, Purdie and Price had been quickest in the class thanks to a brilliant lap from Purdie earlier in the session, but Price had no answer for either Geoghegan or Camilleri to go back to top spot.
Silver Cup
Buckby Motorsport’s Lochie Dalton and Ben Newman made a welcome return to the category, having missed GT Festival Sydney earlier this month by going fastest in the class.
Like the Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4, the pair waited until the final moments to post their best lap, and it was Newman who put them on top after two final mammoth laps – eventually posting a 1m 21.541s run around the circuit.
With just over 10 minutes of the session remaining, Newman was three seconds off the pace but slowly improved as the clock ticked down, eventually pipping Tim Berryman in the GWR Australia Toyota Supra EVO 2 he shares with Daniel Frougas.
In the end, just under five tenths of a second separated the two crews, while series debutant Chris White put the second Toyota Supra EVO 2 within the top three – the young New Zealander and co-driver Tony Quinn eventually ending up three tenths off Berryman and Frougas.
Am Cup
Shane Smollen kept his dominant form in Monochrome GT4 Australia up and running, having been the quickest in the class for the whole session.
Once again behind the wheel of in the Method Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman, Smollen never looked in doubt despite finishing just three tenths quicker than teammates and fellow Porsche pilots Nathan Callaghan and Chris Lillis.
So dominant was Smollen throughout Practice 1, his lap three time of 1m 22.091s remained unbeaten by any of the 27 other cars for much of the session, eventually dropping some places to the Silver and Silver-Am drivers in the final minutes.
Finishing the session in third place and four tenths behind the Porsche 718 Cayman of Callaghan and Lillis was the BMW M4 GT4 F82 of Gomersall Motorsport’s Glenn Walker, who produced his best lap on his 24th and final lap.
Monochrome GT4 Australia continues today with Pre-Qualifying at 2:15pm AEST.