It was frantic activity in the two qualifying sessions at the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hours with Toni Vilander and the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488GT3 taking provisional pole ahead of the Pirelli Top Ten Shootout for later this afternoon.
The session was held in hot and sunny conditions which was always going to help the non-turbo cars and not create an ideal situation for mega-quick lap times.
As a results the times only dipped into the 2:02s with Vilander taking a 2:02.219. He was ahead of the Chaz Mostert MARC Cars BMW who led the AM category on a time of 2:02.408.
Marco Wittman topped out the top 3 for the BMW squad with the leading Porsche being driving by Matt Campbell. The Ice Break Racing Competition Porsche topped the PRO/AM category on a time of 2:02.864.
There were a number of drivers that had problems during the sessions.
Qualifying for the whole field began in bright sunshine with temperature counting against record breaking pace.
The temperatures also began claim scalps with some potentially front running cars hitting trouble in the two part session.
David Reynolds suffered from power steering issues in the Hogs Breath Mercedes which scuppered their chances of a good time and they will start in 23rd.
Included in those drivers was Ben Barnicoat who spun after the second to last corner in the #59 Tekno McLaren. He let the car go backwards down the straight for a while to make the pitlane. The car did not make it out for the second session but the time Barnicoat previously set proved to be just good enough for ninth. The #59 it seems may be in real trouble, the McLaren GT organisation working frantically to track down a replacement rear chassis. Either way, because the car did not run in the second session it was not eligible for the top 10 shootout.
There was also a major incident for Ricky Collard at the Bentley Cutting in the #99 Walkenhorst BMW. Getting out the way of other cars on their fast laps, Collard claims he was tagged and as a consequence spun, hitting the inside wall. The crash halted the session early and that car will now start in 28th.
Dean Canto in the Trofeo Lamborghini Huracan had a brief off track moment the Chase but was able to continue. To give context about how competitive the Class A field is, Canto set a time of 2:04.845, and will start from 27th.
Another issue in the first part of qualifying was a run on at turn one for Tony Walls in the #11 Objective Racing McLaren. Unable to make it back on track, it brought out a brief red flag.
The second session had its fair share of close calls too, none more so than right at the death of the session with Timo Glock going slowly across Skyline. Al Buncombe in the Nissan came across at pace and had to take evasive action. A massive shunt was only just avoided, and the final chance for a Nissan to make the top 10 was gone.
It was Glock’s second big escape having taken to the gravel at speed at McPhillamy.
There were other big names too to miss the top 10 with defending champion Shane van Gisbergen and the #22 STM AMG GT3 destroying his last hot lap by going wide at the last corner, this after a couple of other fumbles as he attacked the required time with customary vigour, he sits in 17th.
Equally Alvaro Parente abandoned his last lap in the #1 Tekno McLaren after a poor final lap, putting that car in 11th and missing the Shootout.
Indeed, there are no Nissans, Audis or Mercedes in the top 10, with the crews either suffering from problems or not coping well with the high temperatures.
One of the major issue the teams who damaged the cars or needed setup changes, was they could not alter the cars, save for tyres, between the two qualifying sessions.
The crews in the top 10 will now have their times wiped for the shootout, while positions 11-55 have their grid positions set.
Class B was dominated by Ben Barker in the Grove Porsche who lapped in a 2:08.532, over two seconds ahead of Dan Grant in the Steve Richards Motorsport Porsche.
In Class C, it was a stunning debut qualifying for the KTM X-Bow of the M Motorsport team. The KTM set a time of 2:17.713. They were ahead of the #55 Ginetta after the RA Motorsports team was able to repair the car overnight but the team disappointed that their qualifying strategy hadn’t paid off, traffic scuppering Mike Simpson’s chances of a clear lap.
It was a disaster for the Prosport Performance Porsches in Class C. The #18 with Charles Putmann behind the wheel found the dirt at turn one and brought out the red flag with the right rear having clanged the wall. But worse for the squad, they would be relegated to the rear of the grid after a technical infringement, fuelling the cars after the qualifying session had started.
The Class I battle was between the Daytona Sportscars Dodge Viper Coupe of Ben Shoots and the #94 MARC Cars with Aaron Seaton behind the wheel. The Viper has been the fastest down the straights all weekend and that came to their advantage, taking class pole by 0.3 with a time of 2:09.619.
The top 10 Class A cars will take part in the Pirelli Top Ten Shootout at 3:40pm local time.
Toni Vilander attacked the early top three form of a trio of BMWs and banged in the fastest time of the session, 2:02.219, this heading a top ten separated by less than 1.3 seconds.
The BMW trio was headed up by Chaz Mostert in the #90 MARC Cars M6 GT3, ahead of Mrco Wittman in the #60 SRM car with young Matt Campbell preferred to either Marc Lieb or Pat Long in the #12 ‘Ice Break’ Competition Motorsports Porsche relegating Timo Glock to fifth fastest in the & SRM BMW.
Maxine Soulet made sure there was a Bentley in the shootout with an early session effort that was good enough for 6th and Earl Bamber’s best effort made it two Porsches, the #911 Walkinshaw GT3 car seventh.
George Miedecke proved to be a surprise package, he put the #35 Aston Martin 8th.
An Audi did make it into the shootout too, but not perhaps one of the fancied runners, instead the #5 GT Motorsport entered R8 LMS squeaked in ninth, Greg Taylor leaving a legion of far more fancied runners in his wake.
And the defending Champions in the #1 McLaren made the shootout, despite not bettering the time of the team car, Alvaro Parente 10th fastest of the cars that started the second Qualifying session.
