R-Motorsport’s #62 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 led the way in today’s Qualifying sessions at Bathurst, Jake Dennis setting a 2:02.412 at the death of the Qualifying 2 session to secure a place for the Swiss outfit in the Super Pole session later on.
In what was an incredibly tight session to decide the top 10 cars set to run in Super Pole, Dennis’ time put the car just 0.0122 ahead of the #777 Bend Motorsport Park Mercedes of David Reynolds, who put the team fastest of the Pro-Am Class A runners (and the only ProAm car to make it into the top 10).
Making it two Mercedes in the top three, was Maro Engel, who posted a 2:02.430 to go 0.0179 off the provisional pole time.
Dennis’ time was impressive, though he will not be able to take overall pole when he takes to Mount Panorama later as the car will receive a two-place grid penalty after Super Pole for speeding in the pit lane.
“It’s been a challenge, but we rose to it quickly. The car’s been good all weekend, the lap was good, now I have to do it again in Super Pole. I know I have the car underneath me though,” Dennis, who topped Q1, said after the session.
Outside the top three, Yelmer Buurman put the #19 Griffith Corp Mercedes fourth, ahead of the #912 Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche which led the way for most of Q2 after a strong first banker lap by Matt Campbell.
The other five cars that will take part in the Super Pole session and gun for the Allan Simonsen Pole award are the #107 Bentley, #22 and #2 Team Valvoline Audis, #999 Gruppe M Mercedes and #18 KCMG Nissan.
16 cars in Class A didn’t make it through, including some key contenders.
The #108 Bentley came close, but will start the race 11th, after missing out on a Super Pole slot by a tenth. The #911 Earl Bamber Porsche and #42 Schnitzer BMW – which took pole last year – also didn’t make the cut.
Prior to Q2, the first of the two Qualifying sessions decided the grid order for classes B, C and I.
In class I, the fastest time was set by Anto de Pasquale in the #91 MARC MARC II V8, but his time was a 2:04.258, good enough for 10th overall. Notably, it was quicker than the mandatory benchmark time of 2:05, meaning the lap will be deleted post-session.
The team also received a two-place grid penalty for speeding in pit lane. However, even with the penalty and its best time deleted, it still holds onto the top spot over the #20 T2 Racing MARC II V8 which will start second in class after a 2:06.697.
Class B meanwhile, was topped by the Grove Porsche, WEC regular Ben Barker starring with a rapid 2:06.452, which was just a few tenths off the outright Porsche Carerra Cup Australia lap record at Bathurst and almost a second faster than the nearest challenger in the class.
“We’ve been working on the car all weekend, Ben did an awesome job getting the lap done on his first flyer. It wasn’t the lap he was supposed to push on either because on his others he got held up!” Said Brenton Grove, one of Barker’s teammates for the weekend.
The #43 Ashley Seward Motorsport Porsche will start second in Class B.
In Class C, another WEC regular, Mathias Beche, set the pole time, the Swiss lapping the mountain in 2:17.072 driving the #71 KTM M Motorsport X-Bow GT4.
The #62 car will not though, whatever the result of the Top 10 Shootout, start from the pole after the car was dealt a 2 place grid penalty as a result of Mathieu Vaxiviere speeding in pitlane. Should Dennis set the fastest time in the Shootout he would though still be honoured as the Alan Simonsen Pole Trophy winner.
