Matt Campbell has put the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche at the top of the time sheets during FP5 this morning. His lap time came right towards the end of the session, and the 2:02.7513 is the fastest lap of the weekend so far.
Campbell was followed by Jules Gounon in the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes and Richie Stanaway in the #99 Boost Mobile Mercedes who both breached into the 2:02’s. The #99 was the only Pro-Am car in the top 5, which was completed by the #999 GruppeM Mercedes at the hands of Raffaele Marciello, and the #74 Audi Sport team MPC R8 with Patrick Niederhauser.
6th place went to the top Silver class runner; David Russell putting the #47 Supabarn Audi into the 2:03’s with a 2:03.42 to plant the car firmly in the top 10.
Many teams used the session as a chance to rehearse pit stops and qualifying sims, with the top 14 cars setting a time faster than a 2:05. It was noted that a number of cars aborted hot laps though, with at least the #999 GruppeM Mercedes, #777 The Bend Motorsport Park Audi, and #74 AudiSport Team MPC cars setting purple laps to Sector 2, before coming into the pits.
The session was halted early on due to the stopped #101 Harrolds Volante Rosso Mercedes at the hands of Ross Poulakis. Unfortunately, Poulakis missed the pit entry after the Red Flag was thrown, touring the track once more and copping a 10 minute stop-and-hold in the pits after the session resumed.
All 25 remaining cars set laps during the session, with the #52 Wheels/FX Racing MARC II V8 not taking the session after the massive incident yesterday. Currently, the garage sits empty, but there has been no official word on the status of the entry yet.
The #222 Scott Taylor Motorsport car missed the early part of the session, and was reported to be struggling to move off of pit lane. The car was worked on and was able to get out on track after 20 minutes. Also setting laps was the #66 SIN R1 from Daytona Sportscars, who completed an engine change overnight after struggling with an oil leak yesterday.
Practice wraps up with another hour long session at 10:50 AEDT (UTC+11), before Qualifying starts at 12:45.
