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Oscar Targett, Shane Smollen, together with Ricky Capo, and Grant Sherrin were the top qualifiers at The Bend. The Shannons Trophy Series also featured several categories that practiced before qualifying on Saturday.
For the second round in a row, Grove Racing’s Targett has qualified fastest for the opening race of Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia. For the fifth round, he was able to edge out Marco Giltrap by just 0.048s after the Team Porsche NZ/Earl Bamber Motorsport driver was fastest over the two preceding practice sessions.
The pair was 0.3s up on points leader Sonic Racing’s Marcos Flack while fourth best was TekworkX Motorsport’s Hamish Fitzsimmons, in front of Zac Stichbury, Lachlan Bloxsom, Ronan Murphy and New Zealand’s World Karting Champion Clay Osborne. Harrison Goodman came in ninth ahead of Aron Shields.
Best of the Ams was Sam Shahin by three tenths over Brett Boulton with Matt Slavin third. Then came Pan Boyaci, David Greig and Indiran Padayachee. In Class B Lachlan Harburg showed the way from Brad Carr and Jacque Jarjo.
In the combined Monochrome GT4/Mobil 1 Australian Production Car Championships, it was yet another pole position the GT4 points leader Smollen.
Teamed with Capo in the Porsche Cayman, they finished 2.47s ahead of Mark Griffith (GT4 Mercedes AMG) and the Jacob Lawrence/John Bowe GT4 BMW M4).
The fourth of the GT4s was the Karl Begg/Paul Morris McLaren 570S which was plague with a wheel bearing issues and finished the session 12th.
Third in the overall Production Car standings, Sherrin (Class X BMW M4) was fastest and fourth overall ahead of his brother Iain (second in the points) in the team’s second car. Top of the points Coleby Cowham and Lindsay Kearns (Class A2 Ford Mustang GT) were the fastest in practice but third in qualifying.
Seventh-fastest and leading A1 was Chris Sutton (Mitsubishi EVO X) in front of Nathan Callaghan/Chris Lillis (A2 HSV Clubsport), Paul Buccini (A1 BMW M140i), Trevor Symonds (Clubsport), and Mick Rowell (Mustang). Half a second off the latter were Michael Stillwell/Ray Hislop (Mustang), and Tony Levitt/Luke King (A2 Mercedes C63).
With the series already won, Matt Hillyer headed Team Sonic Mygale team-mate Jake Santalucia after two Formula Ford practice sessions. Borland Racing’s Jack Bussey (Spectrum) finished the day third ahead of Sonic’s Conor Somers. Eddy Beswick (Synergy Motorsport Spectrum) was next-best as he completed is High School Certificate History exam between sessions.
TekworkX Motorsport debuted their brand-new MARC GT in the MARC Cars Australia Championship by finishing quickest over the three practice session.
Drivers Danny Stutterd and Max Vidau were 2.1s faster than fellow MARC GT pilots Geoff Taunton, Adam Hargraves and John Goodacre.
Best of the MARC 1s was Cameron McLeod ahead of father/son combination of Andrew and Tim Leithhead.
After the three practice sessions for Round 4, the top three in Radical Australia Cup on combined times were separated by just 0.11s. Volante Rosso’s teenager Alex Gardner was the quickest overall.
The series leader was head of Practice 1 and had 0.032s over Cooper Cutts that saw him the quickest in Practice 3.
Practice 2 belonged to Elliott Schutte who finished third overall.
Adam Lisle and Jordan Oon combined to place fourth, ahead of reigning champion Chris Perini fifth on his comeback drive.
After three practice sessions for the Australian Prototype Series, Andrew McKee was the best.
His third session time in the Wolf F1 Mistral was a second faster that Mark Lauke (Wolf GB08 Tornado).
Third was Jason Makris (Tornado) ahead of Englishman Miles Lacey (Praga R1) on a quick and out visit, and Phil Hughes (Radical SR8).
With a sizeable points lead; John Paul Drake did not go out and only plans to compete on Sunday.
In the small field of Burson Auto Parts Circuit Excel SA field, it was Tickford Racing’s Charlie Nash ahead of Shayne Nowickyj and Mitchell McGarry, with Kim Anderson and Jack Wallis the next two.
