As halfway approach it was Ben Gomersall (with Jason Gomersall and Aaron Seton) in the outright lead, but he pitted the Mustang with 3:03 to go. Ryder Quinn (with Tony Quinn and Grant Denyer) in a Mustang took over the front running but had Ben Kavich (with Michael Kavich and Tom Randle) was closing.
BMWs filled the next three places with Tyler Everingham, Leahey and Dean Campbell ahead of Iain Salteri (Class A1 Volkswagen Golf R), Hodges, Callaghan, Liam Loiacono (Evo X) and Tony Levitt (Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG).
The pacesetters have been Will Davison, Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey in their Class X BMW M3 as they led at the start and only lost the front running on pit strategy and a very brief pass by the Simon Hodges/Jayden Ojeda/George Miedecke M4. The latter have been on a strategy of completing their compulsory pitstops as quickly as possible.
A surprise leader in the third hour was the Class B BMW 335i of Peter O’Donnell, Matt Chahda and Garry Mennell before it gave way to the Chris Lillis/Nathan Callaghan/Josh Muggleton Class A2 Chev Camaro.
There have been six safety cars so far. The first came when the Iain Sherrin M4 was in the McPhillamy Park sand trap after contact with the Ryan Casha Class A Ford Mustang.
The second SC was for the Steve McHugh/Ian Cowley/Adam Talbert Holden Astra HSV, stopped with a blow clutch. The next SC was for the M4 of Jordan Cox/Scott Turner/Rob Rubis stopped for short period. It had started the race from the pitlane after fuel leak.
Tyler Mecklem put the Hadrian Morrall Mustang in the wall at Sulman Park which brought out the fourth SC and shortly after Graeme Wakefield spun the Mitsubishi Evo X at Skyline and hit the concrete. At the same time the Alice Buckley was in the gravel at the Chase in the Toyota 86.
Safety Car #6 occurred around 25mins before the midpoint when Tyler Cheney smacked the wall on exit to the Cutting in the Mustang he shared with Graham Cheney and Paul Hadley.
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