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The Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrara Cup Round 7 sessions were headed by Bayley Hall and Marcos Flack with the former in his McElrea Racing entry the quickest overall.
Hall topped Practice 1 where championship leader Porsche Centre Melbourn Motorsport’s Harri Jones into a wall on just his second lap, and out of the rest of the session.
Hall picked up where he left off on the Gold Coast 12 months ago, the site of his maiden race and round victories.
Hall led Earl Bamber Motorsport’s Dale Wood by 0.02s, with TekworkX Motorsport’s David Russell and Glen Wood (EBM) next as Adrian Flack topped Pro-Am and was 11th overall.
The second session saw red flagged after Lockie Bloxsom went into the tyre barrier at Turn 11 Lachlan Bloxsom and Tom McLennan when into the back of the McElrea when he had nowhere to go.
McLennan was sent for precautionary checks on his neck following the incident and was discharged later in the day.
Then Adrian Flack had heavy concrete when he had a spin on the exit to the fast beach chicane after the EBM entry became unsettled on the kerbs.
After the qualifying resumed, Marcos Flack jumped to the top in his Sonic Motor Racing entry and edged out Russell by 0.03s as the session concluded.
Dale Wood was next, ahead of Hall and Jones in his first quick laps of the day. Jones’ teammate Fabian Coulthard, Dylan O’Keeffe, Glen Wood, Nash Morris and Ange Mouzouris completed a top 10 covered by just 0.59s.
Dean Cook grabbed the top spot in Pro-Am over Rodney Jane, with Stephen Grove, the latter set to start his 200th Carrera Cup race on Saturday.
Round 7 qualifying is scheduled for 9:40am AEST with the first race of three at 1:20pm.
