Mawson claims maiden S5000 pole

Joey Mawson has converted his superior practice pace into pole position for Round 3 of the VHT S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship at Sandown.

The Team BRM driver topped the 15 minutes of qualifying with a 1:06.2493s, while Garry Rogers Motorsport’s James Golding was next-best on a 1:06.4712s.

As is customary in S5000, the session was a continuous stream of faster and faster lap times.

Tim Macrow, who sits second in the championship, was quickest after the initial flyers with a 1:10.8570s but the pace-setters were into the low-eights next time around.

Nathan Herne was first to crack the sixes when he set a 1:06.9642s, before championship leader Thomas Randle achieved a 1:06.7820s approximately halfway into proceedings.

It did not take long for Mawson to undercut that with a 1:06.7185s, then a 1:06.5282s, a 1:06.3223s, and the 1:06.2493s on consecutive laps.

He had no more improvement in him and while that mattered not, the battle for the other berth on the front row was not done.

Golding and Randle each saved their best for last but the latter’s 1:06.5349s after the chequered flag in the Castrol BRM machine was only good enough for third.

Herne finished the session in fourth, ahead of Macrow, Luis Leeds, Cooper Webster, Kaleb Ngatoa, Ricky Capo, Antonio Astuti, and Braydan Willmington.

All three S5000 races take place tomorrow, the final day of the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint, with Heat 1 due for a start at 09:25 local time/AEDT.

Results: Qualifying