Two-Time Bathurst 1000 winner Will Davison will start the 2023 Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour from pole position after producing a lightning quick lap during today’s qualifying sessions.
The Repco Supercars Championship star had the fastest time during the category’s final practice session and was again at the top of the time sheets in qualifying after setting a 2:24.461 in the BMW M3 he’ll share with former 6 Hour winners Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey.
Sharing the front row will be Drew, Wayne and Aaren Russell after Drew set the second fastest time for the session in the Go-Karts-Go BMW M3 – his time half a second slower than the polesitter.
Davison’s Supercars teammate Anton De Pasquale will start the race directly behind him in the BMW M4 he’ll share with Anthony Soole and Adam Burgess,, while another Supercars gun in Thomas Randle put the Yellow Pages Race For A Cure BMW M2 Competition on the second row next to De Pasquale.
Two rising stars of Australian motorsport share row three and continued BMW’s dominance, with Jayden Ojeda putting the Secure Wealth Advisers BMW M4 in fifth ahead of BMW M3 pilot Tyler Everingham.
In seventh outright was the first non-BMW outside the outright class with Excel star Ryan Casha guiding the Century 21 Hazelbrook Ford Mustang GT to the top spot in the A2 class.
Carrera Cup driver Dylan O’Keeffe took pole in Class A1 behind the wheel of the Mercedes-AMG he’ll share with Mike Sheargold and Brett Hobson.
The 59-strong field will next be on track with the warm-up session tomorrow morning at 8:45am, before the official Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour begins at 11:45am.
Click here to view full results from Qualifying.
GT World Challenge Austrlaia
The Shannons Insurance Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Liam Talbot and Max Hofer claimed victory in the opening race of the 2023 GT World Challenge Australia season.
A solid defence by Talbot in the opening stint against the leading Am Class Audi of Brad Schumacher set up a lights-to-flag victory.
Talbot and Schumacher shared the front row, which led to an entertaining stint-long battle between the pair, however it was dual-reigning champion Yasser Shahin and co-driver Garnet Patterson in the EMA Motorsport/The Bend Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R who finished second ahead Schumacher.
Triple-Australian GT champion Geoff Emery and Audi factory driver Christer Joens ended up fourth, while an impressive final charge from Jamie Whincup saw him put the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes AMG he shares with Prince Abu Bakar in fifth ahead of teammates Broc Feeney and Prince Jefri Ibrahim.
GT Trophy winner Marcos Flack was eighth in the Sonic Motor Racing Services Porsche 911 Cup Car ahead of second placed Am Class entry of Marcel Zalloua and Sergio Pires in the Valmont Racing Audi.
The Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS action concludes tomorrow with Race 2 at 9:20am AEST live on Stan Sport.
GT4/Australian Production Cars
The combined GT4/Australian Production Cars field saw plenty of highlights across its two races on Saturday, with the major highlight being motorsport veteran Tony Quinn’s victory in the opening race.
Behind the wheel of the Keltic Racing Porsche Cayman GT4, Quinn had started the opening race from pole but was made to work for his win as he dropped to third behind Australian Production Cars stars Beric Lynton and Grant Sherrin.
He eventually wrestled his way back into the lead after six laps and held on for the rest of the race, while Karl Begg managed to charge past both BMW Production Cars to secure second place ahead of Sherrin.
In the category’s second race, it was Begg who picked up top honours, comfortably beating Quinn by 23 seconds in the 15-lap affair having taken the lead on the fifth lap.
Quinn was unable to regain top spot after he lost it and he found himself in an intense battle with Mark Griffith as less than a second separated the Porsche and Griffith’s AMG by the chequered flag.
Almost 50 seconds behind in fourth was the fastest Australian Production Cup winner in Iain Sherrin, while he was almost one minute ahead of Chris Sutton in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.
Just one race remains for the category, which will be run at 10:35am local time.
The MRF Tyres Nissan Pulsars
The one-make MRF Tyres Nissan Pulsars category had all three of its races today and it was Dan Smith who claimed top honours for the round.
Coming away from the weekend with one win and two-runner up finishes, Smith was highly consistent across the three entertaining outings as he capitalised on an error from polesitter Josh Craig in the opening race and didn’t look back.
Smith picked up the lead on lap three of five in the first race to cross the finish line ahead of Will Foot and Chris Manning, while Craig ended up eighth.
Craig then charged his way through the field in the second race, making up five places to third on the first lap, then climbing to second on the penultimate lap before snatching the lead from Smith on the final lap to cross the line juist two tenths faster.
In the final race, Craig led from lights out to the chequered flag to pick up his second win, but it was Smith who secured enough points to win the weekend.
Circuit Excel Bathurst Challenge
The Circuit Excel Bathurst Challenge produced some challenging racing in its two outings as Ryan Casha picked up two wins, beating Hugo Simpson on both occasions.
Remarkably both races finished under the safety car as Casha led all but lap as Simpson took the lead on the opening lap of the second race, but gave it away again on the following lap.