He laid down a 2:05.3317s with less than five minutes to go in the second of the day’s Bronze driver-only hit-out in order to see off the two Pro class Melbourne Performance Centre Audi entries, which have been a regular presence near the top of the timing screen.

Practice 2 fast man Liam Talbot climbed two positions to second with the chequered flag out on Practice 4 by wheeling the #22 Audi to a 2:05.5292s.

Team-mate Brad Schumacher had held sway for much of the session thanks to the 2:05.5848s which he set on his sixth lap in the #2 Audi – which missed most of Practice 2 due to a sensor issue – and that time would prove good enough for third.

Car #22 still has the fastest time of the event thus far, a 2:02.7346s achieved by Kelvin van der Linde in Practice 1, which was open to all drivers.

Fourth in Practice 4 was 2022 and 2023 race winner Kenny Habul with a 2:05.6885s in the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG which is also contesting the Pro class despite his Bronze driver status.

Yasser Shahin took fifth in the #911 Manthey EMA Porsche on a 2:06.5525s, from Prince Jefri Ibrahim in the #88 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG on a 2:06.7172s.

The #44 Valmont Racing/Tigani Motorsport Audi topped the Silver class in seventh outright after Sergio Pires clocked a 2:07.1736s.

Despite spits of rain before and reportedly during the session, the track essentially remained dry throughout.

The #91 Wheels FX Racing IRC made contact with a tyre barrier when it spun exiting The Chase around a quarter of an hour into the session, but the touch was light and there was no disruption to proceedings, making for a red flag-free day.

Practice 5, an all-in session, starts tomorrow at 08:05 local time/AEDT/UTC +11.

Results: Practice 4 Bronze drivers