Tim Brook marked his return to Trans Am by topping both practice sessions of Round 4 at Queensland Raceway.
After a 12-month hiatus, Brook was handed the Jeff and Hayden Hume Dodge Challenger for the weekend and out-pointed the series front runners.
Brook didn’t want to read a lot into his times, the best of which was 0.29s faster than his nearest rival. “We did have the benefit of new tyres as it is my first round for the year, but hey, it’s better than being mid-pack and scratching our heads,” he said.
“The car performs much the same as the Mustang I drove last year. It has a slightly lower roof line and is different at the front.”
As expected, Ben Grice was up the front in practice and finished the session second fastest in his Mustang. Next best, and also Mustang mounted, was series leader James Moffat.
They were followed by Moffat’s Garry Rogers Motorsport teammate Edan Thornburrow while another from GRM’s stable, Owen Kelly was missing due to work commitments.
Fifth-placed was Tom Hayman (Mustang), just in front of the leading Camaro driven by Brett Holdsworth, and Lochie Dalton (Mustang), who was dominant in the last round, where he won all three races.
Next was the Racing Academy pair of Elliott Cleary and Cody Gillis in their Mustangs – the latter coming off a solid second overall at the Winton round. Elliot Barbour (Camaro) finished both sessions ninth for 10th overall after he stopped the first session when he speared off at Turn 3.
Then followed Josh Thomas (Mustang), Nick Lange (Camaro), Shaun Richardson (Challenger), Craig Scutella (Camaro), Mark Crutcher (Mustang), Josh Webster (Camaro) and John Hollinger (Camaro). James Simpson trails the field with his return to the series after his Challenger ended the first round on hits roof.
The National Trans Am Series, which is part of the Shannons SpeedSeries, will have qualifying on Saturday morning at 9:20 AEST, before two of four races scheduled at 12:25 and 14:15 AEST.