Monochrome GT4 Australia’s historic visit to the famous Hampton Downs in New Zealand has officially got underway with Friday’s opening Practice 1 complete.
With 24 cars featured in the opening 40-minute session of GT Festival Hampton Downs, teams continued their preparation for the 2025 season finale as we got the first look at the multiple new teams and drivers making their series debuts.
Silver Cup
Jarrod Hughes and Summer Rintoule have set the tone of the weekend early with the JGI Triple Eight Racing duo guiding their Mercedes-AMG GT4 to the top of the timesheets in Practice 1.
The duo’s lap five time of 1:37.921 remained unbeaten for the whole session as the five Silver Cup cars completed between 18–20 laps of the Auckland-based circuit.
Finishing the session in second place just three hundredths of a second off the Mercedes were Silver Cup leaders Max Geoghegan and Tom Hayman in the Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4, with their fastest time coming just three laps later.
While there was very little separating the top two, the Silver Cup leaders’ main title rivals in George Miedecke / Rylan Gray were a bit further off, with their fastest time in the Miedecke Motorsport with Lubrimaxx Ford Mustang GT4 coming in at 1:38.543 – six tenths off the pacesetters.
Rounding out the five for the session was TekworkX Motorsport’s Nash Morris and Zoe Woods, who produced the fourth fastest time in their Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS, while Gomersall Motorsport’s Jake Camilleri was fifth in the Ford Mustang GT4.
Silver-Am Cup
The three major title contenders for the Silver-Am Cup produced the top three times for the session as Daniel Frougas and Tim Berryman enjoyed a strong start to the weekend, going fastest.
Behind the wheel of the GWR Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO 2, Frougas and Berryman’s best time of 1:38.132 came on their penultimate lap as they finished just under one and a half tenths quicker than their two title rivals.
Going second fastest was the Ford Mustang GT4 of DA Campbell Transport’s Cameron Crick and Dean Campbell, while less than three hundredths of a second off them was the leading Silver-Am Cup Ford Mustang GT4 of Gomersall Motorsport’s Aaron Seton and Jason Gomersall.
Zac Soutar and GlennNirwan went fourth fastest in the Tufflift Racing TSM McLaren Artura GT4 a further three tenths off after producing their best time on their penultimate lap, while it was Tayler Bryant and Jeremy Gray in the JMG Racing that led the way for the newcomers.
Running in their Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO 2, the pair’s time of 1:38.563 fell just half a tenth from the Tufflift Racing TSM McLaren above them on the timesheets, while also going almost half a second quicker than fellow Toyota Supra drivers Dan Gaunt and Tony Quinn, who were next up.
Am Cup
Jarrod Keyte and Marcus LaDelle went fastest for the Am Cup in the 40-minute practice session, as they steered their 99motorsport Ford Mustang GT4 to a 1:39.501 after completing 19 laps.
Producing the lap on their 10th attempt around the circuit, they ended up going one and a half tenths faster than the series debutant James Sax in the Mach 1 Mercedes-AMG GT4.
The Kiwi enjoyed a strong showing in his first session for the category, edging out Cup leader Jacob Randall by the smallest of margins at the conclusion of the session.
Just seven thousandths of a second separated the Mercedes-AMG with the Randall Racing BMW M4 GT4 G82 of Jacob Lawrence.
Another newcomer in Ryan Sorensen went fourth fastest for the session in the Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4, with the debutant going one tenth quicker over teammates Nathan Callaghan and Chris Lillis in the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS.
With the Method Motorsport duo going fourth and fifth fastest, it made it five different manufacturers within the top five for the session, highlighting the close competition between the class.
Monochrome GT4 Australia has just one session remaining for Friday’s track activity, with Pre-Qualifying to take place at 12:05 AEDT / 14:05 NZDT.