Liam Talbot in the #65 CoinSpot Audi R8 has topped the bronze-only practice three at Bathurst this afternoon. His time of a 2:06.2166 the fastest of the session by over 4 tenths, ahead of Yasser Shahin in the #777 Audisport Team Valvoline car. The top three was rounded out by the sister Audisport Team Valvoline car, with Brad Schumacher bringing the #74 home less than a tenth behind his team mate.
Martin Konrad put the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes in fourth to be the top of the Mercedes cars, with the Craft Bamboo #91 Mercedes at the hands of Kevin Tse ending the session in 5th, the last of the cars in the 2:06’s.
The session was halted for approximately 15 minutes to facilitate the recovery of the #47 Supabarn Audi R8. Theo Koundouris had a moment of oversteer exiting Reid Park, pitching the car hard to drivers left, and collecting the wall into the metal grate.
There goes our live stream camera 😅 #B12hr #IGTC pic.twitter.com/alrWl5TE43
— Bathurst 12 Hour (@Bathurst12hour) May 13, 2022
Theo was out of the car under his own steam, but the #47 is looking far less healthy. It remains to be seen whether or not that car will continue this weekend.
Another team to run into trouble was the #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes. Prince Jefri Ibrahim returned to the pits after only a single lap out on circuit, with damage to the car and a rear puncture. Reports are that the car tagged the wall at Griffins Bend, and it wasn’t seen for the remainder of the session.
The top Invitational car was the #52 Wheels/FX Racing PNG MARC II V8 at the hands of Zane Morse, who finished the session with a 2:07.6011 to end in 6th place overall, and only 1.3 away from the top time of the session. The pace of the Invitational class shows that in the hands of a quick driver, the MARC II and the KTM X-Bow GT2 are close enough to the GT3 machines to be a hassle!
The top Am class car was Marcel Zalloua in the #55 Valmont Racing Mercedes ending the session in 13th, and Scott Taylor topped the Carrera Cup class in 17th. Importantly, both the #19 Nineteen Corp. Mercedes and the #45 RAM Motorsport Mercedes managed significant laps, after both missed running in FP2.
Friday’s action concludes with FP4 starting at 17:15 Local Time (AEST), starting just after sunset.
