Reigning champion Tom Hayman has put himself and new co-driver Jett Murray in a commanding position for today’s opening race of the season as the Queenslander guided the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 to pole position in Qualifying 1.
With the track under wet conditions following some heavy rain, Hayman’s lap time of 1:49.2216 proved good enough as just two hundredths of a second separated him and series debutant Cam McLeod in the #227 Multispares Racing Ford Mustang GT4 he shares with Mason Harvey, while fellow stablemate Lochie Dalton ended up third almost one second off the top two.
Dalton’s teammate Aaron Cameron managed to get their #27 Multispares Racing Ford Mustang GT4 a bit closer to the mark in Qualifying 2 as his time of 1:46.4167 earned him second for the session. Despite the decent lap from Cameron, the session belonged to GWR Australia’s Daniel Frougas, who guided the Toyota GR Supra EVO 2 to pole position for tomorrow’s race.
Securing third for the session was another debutant in Jack Johnson, who guided the Team Soutar Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 to a 1:46.8593 lap time - marking three different manufacturers in the top three for Race 2.
Silver-Am
It was another reigning champion to top the timesheets in Silver-Am Qualifying 1, with Aaron Seton going fastest behind the wheel of the #1 Gomersall Motorsport Ford Mustang GT4 he shares with Jason Gomersall.
Seton’s lap two time of 1:49.7835 went unbeaten for the whole session as drivers tried to navigate their way through the challenging conditions – including Lachlan Mineeff, who brought out the red flag early on after going into the gravel.
Mineeff was able to get out on track again and worked his way through the session – eventually putting the Randall Racing BMW M4 GT4 G82 he shares with Jacob Lawrence in second place, just six tenths off Seton.
Series debutant Nicholas McBride rounded out the top three for the session in the Toyota GR Supra EVO 2 after going one tenth slower than Mineeff.
In Qualifying 2, the Silver-Am Cup was decided by the smallest of margins, with four thousandths of a second the difference between the Norganic Proteins Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS of Caleb Patterson and Kent Quinn, who went fastest, and the Thunder Buddies/Black Diamond BMW M4 GT4 G82 of Ryder Quinn and Daniel Jilesen.
Just two tenths off the intriguing Quinn and Jilesen battle in the session was Gomersall, who produced his best lap late in the session.
Am Cup
The Am Cup was the only class led by the same driver for both Qualifying sessions as Glenn Walker guided the Gomersall Motorsport Ford Mustang GT4 to pole in both sessions.
Enjoying an impressive switch to the new car for this season, Walker’s time of 1:55.6361 saw him edge out the Love Racing by TSM Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Bailey and Rob Love in Qualifying 1 by seven tenths. Going third fastest, one second off, was Peter Lawrence in the Randall Racing BMW M4 GT4 G82 EVO.
While Lawrence went second fastest in Qualifying 2, it was a much bigger gap for pole as Walker went one and a half seconds faster than Lawrence, while McElrea Racing’s Nathan Murray went third fastest a further three tenths off the Randall Racing driver in his BMW M4 GT4 G82 EVO.
Race 1 for Monochrome GT4 Australia’s LIQUI MOLY GT Festival Phillip Island will take place at 12:55pm AEDT.
Wet and Wild conditions greet Monochrome GT4 Australia Qualifying
