Monochrome GT4 Australia has completed both its Qualifying sessions for GT Festival The Bend with plenty of teams and drivers improving from Friday’s sessions.
Silver
Two different sessions saw two different manufacturers qualify in top spot as Jarrod Hughes guided the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT4 to Pole in Qualifying 1 before Max Geoghegan did the same in the Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 in Qualifying 2.
In the first session, most of the drivers produced their best time at the halfway point as Hughes’ brilliant time of 1:54.428 on his third lap remained unbeaten.
Just eight hundredths of a second off Hughes was Geoghegan’s teammate Tom Hayman after he too recorded his fastest time on lap three, while yesterday’s pacesetter Blake Purdie in the Purdie Racing Audi R8 GT4 he shares with Daniel Price settled for third a further tenth and a half off the McLaren.
Geoghegan then put the Method Motorsport McLaren on pole for Qualifying 2 in style thanks to a solid fourth lap of 1:55.268. His time proved more than three tenths faster than series leader George Miedecke, who improved on co-driver Rylan Gray’s fourth fastest time in Qualifying 1.
Rounding out the top three for the class was Hughes’ Triple Eight Race Engineering co-driver Summer Rintoule, who was more than half a second off Miedecke.
Silver Am
Zac Soutar made up for a missed opportunity in yesterday’s action to score the Silver-Am Pole in Qualifying 1 as the Tufflift Racing TSM McLaren Artura GT4 driver ended up almost three tenths faster than Multispares Racing’s Aaron Cameron.
Soutar ended up second overall for the session as he posted a time comfortably ahead of Cameron, who just edged out fellow Ford Mustang GT4 driver Aaron Seton of Gomersall Motorsport by just three hundredths of a second in the session.
Cameron’s co-driver Ryan Hansford then comfortably topped the class in Qualifying 2 as his final lap time of 1:57.089 proved more than one second faster than the next best driver Dean Campbell in the DA Campbell Transport Ford Mustang GT4 he drives with Cameron Crick, while Gomersall Motorsport’s Jason Gomersall ended up third for the session.
Am
The Am class had two different pacesetters across both sessions with Method Motorsport’s Shane Smollen going fastest in Qualifying 1 and Marcus LaDelle picking up where he left off on Friday with Pole in Qualifying 2.
Smollen was the first to take out bragging rights as he cruelly secured Pole position ahead of his title rival Jacob Lawrence of Randall Racing - the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS driver ending up just one tenth of a second faster than the BMW M4 GT4 G82.
Picking up third for the session was Nathan Callaghan in the second Method Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS.
In Qualifying 2, LaDelle guided the 99motorsport Ford Mustang GT4 he shares with Jarrod Keyte to the top of the class with a time of 1:56.767, which edged out Lawrence by just shy of one second, while Callaghan’s co-driver Chris Lillis rounded out the top three.
Monochrome GT4 Australia continues later today with Race 1 at 4:50pm ACST, which Australian fans can watch live and free on 7plus, while international viewers can watch on GT World YouTube.