Dylan O’Keeffe has led the way on a record-breaking day of practice for Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia at Hidden Valley Raceway.
By the end of Practice 1, the prior practice/qualifying lap record held by David Wall (a 1:07.2438s set in 2018) had been bested by both Harri Jones and Christian Pancione, the former’s 1:07.0887s leading the way.
Another half-second was shaved off that benchmark by the end of second practice, with O’Keeffe holding sway courtesy of a 1:06.5518s completed after the clock had ticked down to zero.
It had otherwise seemed set to be a Jones cleansweep of the Friday action, as four other drivers also dipped into the 1:06s bracket: David Russell, Pancione, Callum Hedge, and Wall.
O’Keeffe described his day as “pretty good”.
“I always like coming here and felt comfortable in the first session straight away,” he said.
“We were fairly quick, top five, in the first session and didn’t change too much for Practice 2.
“You just have to put a lap together, you’ve got to back right off and get a gap and then you only need a minute to set a lap. I made it work in the last one.
“With these Michelins it’s the complete opposite to Winton, where you last lap was the fastest.
“This time it will be your first lap, which is different to what I’m used to on these tyres.
“My fastest lap would have been on lap one on my new set of tyres and that was to make sure we were up front for the qualifying session tomorrow – it’s about using your experience from the past and being smart about it. The car was really good.”
Adrian Flack topped the Pro-Am class in both sessions.
Qualifying begins at 10:10 local time/10:40 AEST tomorrow.
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