Cam Waters put the #222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes on top of Practice 5 at Bathurst on Saturday morning, in a session that saw the top 13 cars finish up within half a second of the benchmark time.
Waters’ lap – a 2:03.693 – was a significant improvement from the #222, which seemed to struggle with pace yesterday. Reports from the team is that some minor issues were discovered in the car overnight, which have been rectified and enabled the outfit to flex its muscles with Qualifying and the race itself fast approaching.
Waters just eclipsed Lucas Auer in the #77 Craft Bamboo Mercedes, with a 2:03.701, which appeared to hide its true pace after Jayden Ojeda set a purple time in Sector 2 before choosing to come into the pits.
Broc Feeney put the #183 Jamec Racing Audi into third, only 0.04 away from the leader.
The top 5 was completed by Brenton Grove in the Bronze-class #4 Mercedes, followed by the Arise Racing #26 Ferrari 296 – Daniel Serra at the wheel there.
The top 13 cars were within half a second of the lead time, with the #91 of Morris Schuring on a 2:04.19.
The session saw the first major incident of the weekend, with a 12 minute Red Flag interruption to recover the #25 Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 from the gravel trap at McPhillamy Park.
Paul Buccini at the wheel ran wide through the Metal Grate, collecting the wall with the right front of the car, before continuing into the gravel trap to a stop. Buccini was able to walk from the crash, but that car had to be recovered onto a flatbed, back to the pits.
It was also reported from Absolute Racing that the #911 Porsche underwent a gearbox change overnight, with that car anonymous on the timing sheets yesterday. Matt Campbell had a run late in the session on green tyres, to finish the session 7th, only two tenths from the lead.
Practice 6 kicks off for another hour of running at 10:25 local time (AEDT). Importantly, practice 6 will set the top 50% split for qualifying later today.
