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The Bend Autofest Wrap: Friday

It was an exciting start to the Shannon’s Motorsport Australia Championship at The Bend Motorsport Park, where the championship fight for many of the categories is expected to go down to the wire.

The opening practice and qualifying sessions have setup interesting scenarios for what is certain to be a thrilling two days of racing this weekend.

Here are the stars of the opening day:

Photos: Speed Shots Photography
Radical Cup Australia

Chris Perini set the scene by topping the opening practice session of the day for the Australian Radical Cup series.

The second session couldn’t have been any closer, with Adam Lisle taking top honours by one tenth of a second over Elliot Schutte, before Perini returned to dominate the third and final session of the day.

Australian Production Cars

Drew Russell continued his impressive form last time out by topping the timesheets in the opening practice, kicking off what was to be a perfect day for the Go-Karts-Go team.

Aaren Russell and Wayne Russell played their part in taking out the second practice session, while Aaren put in a superb performance to take pole position for Saturdays opening race.

Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia

The championship fight continued between Thomas Sargent and Ryan Wood, and it certainly did not disappoint.

The pair shared top honours across both practice sessions respectively, before Wood made a statement by claiming pole position for the opening race.

Australian Prototype Series

After finishing atop of the timesheets after the first two practice sessions of the day John-Paul Drake has taken a big step towards his championship ambitions.

Although, Ricky Capo isn’t going anywhere, dominating the third practice session by finishing almost a second ahead of his rival.

GT World Challenge Australia

Yasser Shahin and Garth Tander looked strong early after finishing with the fastest time in the first practice session.

Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Broc Feeney led a Triple Eight Race Engineering one-two in the second session, setting up an interesting qualifying session tomorrow.

Saturday’s action at The Bend AutoFest kicks off at 7:30am ACDT with Race One of the Australian Production Cars Series.

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