John-Paul Drake aka ‘The Joker’ has qualified fastest for Round 1 of the Australian Prototype Series at Phillip Island.

In his Wolf F1 Mistral, Drake laid down a 1 minute 27.6710 second lap to outpoint Ricky Capo and his Praga R1 by half a second. Third was Phil Hughes in his Radical SR8 0.4 seconds away and in front of Mark Rosser (S5000) and Mark Laucke (Wolf GB08 Tornado).

Radical drivers were sixth, seventh and eighth with Terry Knowles (SR3XX) ahead of Peter Clare (SR3XX) and Greg Kenny (SR3RX). Terry Peovitis makes his return to the series in his RFR  F1000 for ninth ahead of Scott Bormann (Wolf F1 Extreme).

Track conditions were much better than earlier. Drivers found it a challenge with rain through the morning and a wet track for the two practice sessions. Rosser was fastest in both outings ahead of Capo while Hughes and Drake were third respectively.

Rosser is running as an invitational entry, and is not eligible for points. For the S5000 driver, it is purely an evaluation outing which has been sanctioned by the Australia Racing Group. He will start 30 seconds behind the Prototypes and should he catch the tailenders will visit the pits.

There will be three races on Sunday. The first over 12 laps will be at 10:10  from a standing start and will be followed by two rolling starts, a 12 lapper at 12:40 and then the last at 15:10 AEST over 16 laps.