The second session for the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour was mainly held of a dry track, albeit under threatening skies that ultimately delivered some light rain and a couple of late red flags.
Beforehand Shell Supercar driver Anton De Pasquale was the pacesetter with best time of 2:27:4019s in Anthony Soole’s Class X BMW M4 that was also driven by Adam Burgess.
The Class X BMWs also held positions two to six with Karl Begg/David Russell/Robert Gooley second ahead of Garth Walden/Michael Auld/Tyler Mecklem, Beric Lynton/Tim Leahey/Will Davison, Ben Kavich/Michael Kavich/Thomas Randle, and Iain and Grant Sherrin.
Seventh and fastest Class A2 were Coleby Cowhan and Lindsay Kearns ahead of George Miedecke/Marcos Ambrose/Tim Brook, both teams in Ford Mustangs.
Dylan O’Keefe, Brett Hobson and Michael Sheargold were next in their Class A1 Mercedes AMG A45 while Aaron Seton and Jason Gomersall were tenth in another Mustang.
The B1 Class honours for the session went to Scott Turner/Jordan Cox/Rob Rubis (BMW 135i).
In B2, it was Brent Edwards/Cody McKay/Brad McDonald (Holden Commodore SSV) and Class C went to Jake Camilleri and Scott Nicolas (Mazda 3 MPS).
In Class D, it was Haydn Clark and Scott Aho (Subaru BRZ) and Phil Alexander/Stephen Doorey/Shane Fowler shaded their fellow Mazda 3 SP35 rival in Class E.
The first stoppage was for the James Hay/Paul Ansell/Michael Learoyd VW Scirocco off at the Chase, and shortly after another when the Murray Dowsett/Mitchell Maddren/Lachlan Bloxsom Toyota 86 came to a halt.
The second of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS practice sessions had sufficient dry running for Triple 8’s Jamie Whincup to post the fastest time.
In the Mercedes-AMG GT3 he shares with Prince Abu Bakar, Whincup’s best was a 2:05:6902s lap.
Second fastest was the visiting German Maximillan Hofer in Liam Talbot’s Audi R8 LMS Evo 2, six tenths of a second slower, with Brad Schumacher third, racing on his own in an Audi.
Rain came later in the session which caught out Grant Donaldson in his MARC Focus at the Chase.
That brought out the red flags for a period. Shortly after the resumption Ash Samadi bunkered at Murrays Corner and that ended the session.
After two at times wet practice sessions of APC/GT4 Karl Begg (Mercedes AMG GT) was on top of the times, just in front of Grant and Iain Sherrin (BMW M4) and Trevor Symonds (HSV Clubsport).
A flying last lap from Ryan Casha will see him start race one of the Circuit Excels Bathurst Challenge from pole position ahead of Harry Tomkins, Ben Gomersall, Hugo Simpson, Asher Johnston and Lewis Buhagiar.
Meanwhile Josh Craig showed the way in qualifying for MRF Tyres Nissan Pulsars.
The Bathurst 6 Hour continues on Saturday, with practice three at 08:45 local time before qualifying beginning with Qualifying One at 13:55 and Qualifying Two at 14:35 local time.
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