His best time in the Pro class Porsche RB968 was a 1:17.914. It was around one-tenth slower than the time set in Thursday’s practice, but Mawer is confident that more pace is still to come now that the class can use slick tyres.

“It was slippery, and I was having trouble at the hairpin,” he said of his morning run where he set the time. “It was windier in the afternoon where we concentrated on settings and ride height adjustments.”

The Pro Class was down to just two as the Scura Motorsport Lotus Exige driven by Tim Slade succumbed to engine dramas in practice.

Slade was also driving the Open Class Xtreme GTR Nissan which had a troubled day with throttle issues and didn’t post a competitive time.

With the Lotus out, that left just the Rodin Sintura piloted by Josh Buchan in Pro. The Rodin-built 4.0-litre V10-powered GT1-spec sports car was sixth fastest of the 67 cars and 10 seconds off Mawer’s time. Buchan also went second fastest at the wheel of the demonstration 3.8-litre Cosworth V8-powered Rodin FZED with a time of 1:21.412.

The next best competition time was from Finland’s Sami Sivonen in the Audi R8 1:1 who headed up the Pro-Am Class with a 1:25.787. The time was 1.24s up on Nathan Morcom, fastest in the Open class aboard the GAS Evo Mitsubishi.

Fifth overall and second in Pro-Am was Texan Feras Qartoumy in his Chevrolet Corvette. After Buchan’s Sintura was Rob Nguyen in the Open Class Dream Project S15, ahead of Pro-Am entries of Drew Hall (Nissan R34 GT-R), Richard Perini (Ginetta G55 GT4) and Aleck Kazakovski (Subaru WRX STi).

Benny Tran was tenth in Open Class when in his final class run for the day, he improved to third and 11th outright but blew the engine as he completed the lap.

A blown engine thwarted Trent Grubel in the DC Jap Automotive WRX, even though he was fastest of the Clubsprint Class, and 14th outright. He is expected to return on Saturday after an overnight engine change and will need to be as his 1:32.423 is only 0.5s ahead of class rivals Alex Michalsky (Plazmaman Evo 6) and Michael Garland (Got It Rex WRX).

Each class with have another three runs on Saturday ahead of the Shootouts that start after the sun sets, under lights.