Richard Gartner’s Lamborghini will start from pole in the Australian GT Trophy Series opening race, after topping the timesheets in qualifying .
Rod Salmon in an Audi R8 will share the front row with Gartner, missing out on pole by one-tenth of a second.
Salmon’s Audi Customer Sport teammate Steve McLaughlan was third fastest and will start alongside Wayne Mack in fourth.
Jan Jinadasa was fifth fastest, while sixth saw the first MARC car steered by last year’s winner Jake Camilleri.
Rick Mensa was seventh, while Aaron Cameron punched an impressive lap with eighth fastest on debut in the MARC Focus V8.
The Australian GT Trophy Series will contest two 50-minute races.
Meanwhile the team of Rick Bates and Bob Pearson have had a fantastic performance in the opening Australian Production Car Series race, taking the 2017 ‘Fight in the Night’ race at Queensland Raceway.
Despite two Safety Car periods throughout the race, Bates made a late move in the race on the Sherrin Racing BMW M4 of Iain and Grant Sherrin to take what is Pearson’s fifth consecutive win in the series.
Nathan Morcom and Chaz Mostert finished a reputable third in the race, while the Beric Lynton/Tim Leahy #1 BMW 1M that was forced to serve a drive through penalty for overlapping on the final restart.
Class winners saw Karl Begg and Justin Anthony take A2, Michael Sherrin and Scott Champion win Class B1, Troy Williams and Jeff Nielsen first in B2, Todd Hazelwood and Scott Turner on top in Class C, Ellexandra Best and Michael Gray in Class D and Lindsay Kearns with Scott Green in the Invitational group.
The Production cars return for their second race today.
Jordan Love has etched his name in Porsche history, claiming the Jim Richards Endurance Trophy for 2017.
Starting from pole, the Porsche Junior lost the start, while young-gun Brenton Grove led the field for a dozen laps including under Safety Car after a first-lap incident.
The race soon restarted and Love was able to get past Grove and take the endurance race win. Anthony Gilbertson showed pace and had another consistent race, finishing third for the first race of the weekend.
South Australians John Karytinos and Sam Shahin were fourth and fifth respectively, while John Morriss and Ross McGregor rounded out the top seven.
Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge returns for two more races as part of their penultimate round for 2017.
In the Australian Prototype Series local driver David Barram has taken Race 1 for a debut series win for the local driver.
Barram stormed to the finish line ahead of the two Wests of Jason Makris and Mark Laucke.
Chris Sutton was the first Radical home in fourth, while John-Paul Drake was the leading Kumho Cup car in fifth outright.
Brian Pettit in the Minetti SSV1 was sixth, with Terry Peovitis, Peter Hill and Richard Mattea rounding out the top nine.
The Hyundai Excel outbreak gathers pace with another good turnout of Korea’s favourite shopping cart.
Pole sitter Cameron Bartholomew was the winner despite being caught-out at the start, going three-cars wide into Turn 1 and falling down the field to ninth.
In an exciting fight back through the field he pushed forward and won the race, finishing ahead of Brock Giblin and Jaylyn Robotham.
Victorian Ashley Wright was fourth, ahead of Daniel Peasey and Richard Peasey.
Source Shannons Nationals Media
