In the first of two sprint sessions on Thursday afternoon, Garnet Paterson sent John-Paul Drake’s Prototype Series Wolf Mistral F1 around the mountain in 2:02.316. That undercut the fastest time last year, set by Paterson in the same car, by 1.5s.

Throughout the day, JAM Motorsport relied on their bank of old tyres to prepare the lightweight turbocharged 1.6lt powered sports car for green rubber on Friday morning and an attempt on a sub-2min breakthrough.

“That has always been out intention, to go under two minutes,” said JAM principal Aaron Steer.

“We have two brand new sets for tomorrow. Garnett will be on them for the first session and John-Paul will stay on them for his session. Then we will fit the other new set for their second sessions.

“After that I think it will probably be too hot to go faster.”

Drake will also be using the car in the final round of the Australian Prototype Series at The Bend Motorsport Park.

The team will have two truck drivers share the driving to transport the car overnight in order to make qualifying at the South Australian circuit on Saturday morning.

Drake finished the day second overall ahead of Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge driver, Sonic Racing’ Jake Santalucia in a Porsche 9991.2 GT3 Cup Car.

Santalucia was fractionally quicker than Geoff Emery at the wheel of Pace Innovation’s new Pace MGT. Sprint Challenge Class B season winner Jacque Jarjo (991.2) was fifth fastest in front of Sonic’s Conor Somers (911 GT3 Cup).