Monochrome GT4 Australia has kicked off its visit to Shell V-Power Motorsport Park with a busy Practice 1 at GT Festival The Bend.
All 29 cars took the track in the drama-free session as the Ford Mustang GT4 reigned supreme in the Silver Am and Am classes, while the popular Audi took out earlier bragging rights in Silver.
Silver Cup
Blake Purdie and Daniel Price have had a strong start to the weekend by going fastest in the Silver Class behind the wheel of the Purdie Racing Audi R8 GT4.
Recording their best time of 1:55.862 through Purdie at the halfway point of the session, the pair ended just half a tenth faster than the next best team in Triple Eight Race Engineering, with Summer Rintoule and Jarrod Hughes in the team’s Mercedes-AMG GT4.
Hughes secured his best time of 1:55.910 on just his third lap of the session before being edged out by Purdie four laps later – the Triple Eight duo unable to replace the Audi for the remainder of the session.
Finishing Practice 1 as the third fastest in the class by just three hundredths of a second were Method Motorsport class title contenders Tom Hayman and Max Geoghegan in the team’s McLaren Artura GT4.
In his first ever laps of an Australian circuit, Ford Junior Driver Jenson Altzman made plenty of headway in the Wallis Motorsport Ford Mustang GT4 and spent the majority of the session on track, before teammate Jack Wallis took over in the final stages.
Silver Am Cup
Aaron Cameron guided the Multispares Ford Mustang GT4 to the top of the Silver-Am and outright timesheets after a lightning quick lap in the final stages of Practice 1.
Having taken over from Ryan Hansford midway through the session, Cameron’s time of 1:55.686 bumped him up to the top of the class almost half a second quicker than Zac Soutar in the Tufflift Racing TSM McLaren Artura GT4 he shares with Glenn Nirwan.
In third place for the session just shy of two tenths off was the Buckby Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Lachlan Dalton and Ben Newman after the pair had led the class in the early stages.
Series debutant JP Drake made a promising start in the category, producing some solid times behind the wheel of the second Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 alongside teammate Loclan Hennock.
Am Cup
99motorsport’s Marcus LaDelle and Jarrod Keyte comfortably led the way in the Am class for Practice 1 as the pair finished almost one second ahead of the next fastest driver.
Posting a time of 1:57.747 in their Ford Mustang GT4, LaDelle and Keyte looked on song throughout their laps as class leader Jacob Lawrence ended up in second place in the Randall Racing BMW M4 GT4 G82.
Lawrence’s main title rival, Shane Smollen, guided the Method Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS to third place just two tenths off the BMW, setting up an intriguing battle between the two for the rest of the weekend.
Smollen’s Method Motorsport teammates Nathan Callaghan and Chris Lillis finished the session less than a tenth off the pace after the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS pilots briefly led the class earlier in the session.
Monochrome GT4 Australia has just one more session for the day with Pre-Qualifying scheduled for 12:25pm ACST.