Monochrome GT4 Australia has seen another impressive session take place on the famous Hampton Downs race track with Pre-Qualifying, as the same teams and drivers from Practice 1 topped the timesheets.
Once again, 24 cars hit the track for one final 40-minute whiteout before Saturday’s ever-important qualifying session as there was plenty of close times.
Silver Cup
Jarrod Hughes and Summer Rintoule continued their golden start to the weekend with their time of 1:38.212 coming right at the end of the session as they replaced Silver Cup title contenders George Miedecke and Rylan Gray for the minor honours.
The pair hadn’t been towards the top of the timesheets for most of the session, until a brilliant lap from Hughes on his last attempt saw him put the Mercedes-AMG GT4 on top, snatching the fastest lap of the session by two tenths of a second Miedecke and Gray had effectively been sitting atop for a majority of the 40 minutes having replaced title rivals Tom Hayman and Max Geoghegan in the Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 earlier in the session.
Going third fastest for the session was Hayman and Geoghegan, who ended up two tenths off the fastest crew of the session with an amicable time of 1:38.448.
It was quite a gap to the remaining two Silver Cup drivers with Nash Morris and Zoe Woods in the TekworkX Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS going fourth fastest more than one second off the leaders, while Jake Camilleri in the Gomersall Motorsport Ford Mustang GT4 was a further four tenths off the pace.
Silver-Am
GWR’s Daniel Frougas and Tim Berryman were once again the fastest of the session as they continued their brilliant form in New Zealand.
Notching up a time of 1:38.394 on their ninth lap of the session, the Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo 2 ended up more than three tenths of a second faster than the next best crew, DA Campbell’s Cameron Crick and Dean Campbell.
Running in their Ford Mustang GT4, the Silver-Am Cup title contenders’ best time came in the back half of the session with their lap nine time of 1:38.700 one and a half seconds faster than the third fastest car, the Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO 2 of Dan Gaunt and Tony Quinn.
In what proved a fortuitous event for Crick and Campbell, their title rivals in Aaron Seton and Jason Gomersall ended up fourth for the session as the DA Campbell duo seemed too strong for their counterparts, while Zac Soutar and Glenn Nirwan went fifth fastest for the session in their Tufflift Racing TSM McLaren Artura GT4.
After missing the opening session, Racelab’s Shaun Varney and Glen Chappel made their first appearance in the series and produced a strong lap as they ended up sixth fastest in the class – the Kiwi duo’s best time nine tenths off fellow the leading Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo 2.
Am Cup
Jarrod Keyte / Marcus LaDelle once again went fastest in the Am Cup for the session as the Ford Mustang pilots notched up a time of 01:39.234.
The 99motorsport duo proved significantly faster than any other driver as the Cup leader Jacob Lawrence guided his Randall Racing BMW M4 GT4 G82 to second for the session – a distant four tenths off the pace.
Most importantly though, his best lap of the session was almost one second faster than his main title rivals in Nathan Callaghan and Chris Lillis in the Method Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS with the pair finishing Pre-Qualifying in sixth in the session.
Going third fastest was their Method Motorsport teammates in series debutant Ryan Sorensen, who guided the second McLaren Artura GT4 to a decent time of 01:40.003, just three tenths off the leading Lawrence.
Following an impressive showing this morning, series debutant James Sax in the Mach 1 Mercedes-AMG GT4 ended up fourth for the session, edging out Gomersall Motorsport’s Glen Walker in his BMW M4 GT4 F82.
The series now turns to its dual Qualifying session on Saturday morning from 6:27am AEDT / 8:27am NZDT before Race 1 gets underway at 10:45am / 12:45pm NZDT