The two practice sessions for the seventh round of the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia were held in contrasting conditions with the first on a dry track before the rain came for the second run on the Gold Coast.
In the first Harri Jones went to the top of the times early. It is his second round for the year before a full-time effort next year. However, he brought out the red flags when he hit the concrete out of the back straight chicane. The Jones Motorsport Porsche suffered damage on the right front corner and would be out for the rest of the day.
Earl Bamber Motorsport took the top two times with Dale Wood 0.04s ahead of points leader Callum Hedge. Third fastest was Alex Davison (Scotty Taylor Motorsport), Dylan O’Keeffe (Garth Walden Racing) and TekworkX Motorsport’s team manager Luke Youlden who was making a one-off return to Porsche racing.
Jones’ earlier time put him in good stead for sixth overall ahead of David Wall, Christian Pancione, Bayley Hall and Simon Fallon.
Best of the SP Tools Pro-Am drivers behind the Equity-One Pros was 13th overall Adrian Flack, ahead of Speedcafe supported driver Liam Talbot, Dean Cook, Matt Belford and Sam Shahin.
There was a shower before the second session which had teams scrambling for Michelin wets. Hedge would top the session which began showing signs of a dry line at times. He had just over half a second on Sonic Racing’s Fallon with Porsche Centre Melbourne’s Fabian Coulthard third.
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Angelo Mouzouris (Sonic) was next ahead of Max Vidau (TekworkX), Ryder Quinn, Thomas Maxwell, Pancione, Nick McBride and second in the points, Jackson Walls.
Behind 11th placed Porsche Sprint Challenge regular Marcos Flack in his first Carrera Cup outing, Shahin led the Pro-Am class ahead of Rodney Jane, Adrian Flack, Tim Miles and Belford.
Qualifying on the Gold Coast takes place on Saturday at 9:45am and 10:03am AEST for the two classes before Race 1 over 16 scheduled laps at 2:25pm.
