Rick Bates has lead the way outright and for class A1 in qualifying for round five of the Australian Production Cars at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.
Bates put the #33 Pro-Duct Mitsubishi Evo he shares with car owner Bob Pearson – who has taken victory at the last six straight races – on the top of the sheets with a very fast 1m 42.4372s.
The time was just 0.3 of a second ahead of the #18 Sherrin Racing BMW M4 of brothers Grant and Iain Sherrin, with both entries lap times coming under the current lap record for the category.
“It was a pretty good lap. It was a bit tricky as when we went out the track was wetter than I thought it would be as we had had that bit of rain,” Bates said.
“It was dry-ish in the pits and on the straight, but turn one, ‘Honda’ and ‘Siberia’ were really wet. I drove around waiting for it to dry out but that is a risk as if it got red flagged we would be in trouble and last instead of first.”
Setting the quickest times for their classes were Nathan Callaghan (#64 Cachet Homes Motorsport Holden HSV VE GT SS3 – Class A2, 9th outright), Michael Auld (#24 GWR/HS Transport Holden VE HSV SSV Redline – Class B2, 7th outright), Hadrian Morrall (#13 Osborne Motorsport Renault Megane – Class C, 8th outright), Andrew Turpie (#86 Pedders Racing/Motorsports Training Australia Toyota 86 – Class D, 11th outright) and Mark Griffith (#12 Griffith Corporation Toyota Echo – Class E, 16th outright).
A dramatic final race saw Brenton Grove take the round win in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Australia at Phillip Island.
Grove grabbed the lead of the race from Jordan Love late in Race 3, however Love later did not finish the race. John Karytinos finished an impressive second, ahead of John Morriss, Ben Stack, Shane Barwood and Phil Morriss.
Drama unfolded for the Elite class title runners, with a final race battle between Professional John Steffensen, Sam Shahin and Anthony Gilbertson seeing all three taken out of the race, which handed Karytinos the Elite class win for the round.
Love was the outright series and Professional class winner, while Gilbertson claimed a close Elite class win ahead of Shahin. David Greig continued his strong run in Class B, sealing the class for the season.
Tyler Greenbury has taken the first race win in the Kumho Tyre V8 Touring Car Series, as part of their penultimate round for the season. The Egglestone Motorsport driver led current series leader Jack Smith for the entire 11-lap race. Michael Anderson completed the podium, crossing the line ahead of Jon McCorkindale and Jim Pollicina.
Michael Caine, Chris Smerdon, Steven Page, Gary Collins and Bradley Neill completed the top 10.
Rod Salmon claimed the first Australian GT Trophy Series race win for the weekend, in the penultimate round of the series. In a shortened race, Salmon converted his pace from yesterday’s practice into a win, bolstering his title contention. Victorian Wayne Mack was second, ahead of Matthew Turnbull rounding out the podium.
2016 Trophy class winner Rob Smith was fourth, ahead of Richard Gartner, Rick Mensa, Jan Jinadasa and Steve McLaughlan, John Goodacre and Mark Griffith rounded out the top 10.
The Australian GT Trophy Series returns Sunday for one 50-minute race.
Phillip Hughes in a Radical claimed a convincing win in the Australian Prototype Series, in the grand finale for the series. Starting from the front row of the grid, Hughes made a great start and didn’t look back, finishing ahead of West racer Aaron Steer. Chris Sutton slotted into second in the series, after taking third in today’s race.
Series leader Mark Laucke finished fifth, consolidating his position as the leader yet at the same time ceding some ground to rivals Hughes and Sutton. David Crampton finished sixth, with Scott Mackay seventh, Jack Crampton eighth and Terry Peovitis ninth.
With two races to go in the series Mark Laucke has consolidated his points lead at the top of the leaderboard with 389 points.
Source: Shannons Media Release
