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CLOSE FINAL SESSION AS ATTENTION TURNS TO QUALIFYING
BMWs locked out the top two places in the final systems check before qualifying for the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour at Mount Panorama.In crisp and clear conditions, Iain Sherrin’s 2m27.6140s flyer aboard the Sherrin Racing M4 was set late in the session and bumped Tim Leahey’s (Bruce Lynton Bodyworks M3) existing fastest time to second, 0.24s splitting the pair in the session.One second covered the top three cars thanks to an early flyer from Jordan Cox put the No. 40 Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X to third thanks to a 2m28.5540s best.That team concentrated on race runs for the remainder of practice, not improving their time after Cox’s third-lap flyer early in the session. The No. 4 Property Investment Store BMW M4 continued to impress with an increasingly competitive performance, the Anthony Soole / Andrew Fisher M4 finishing fourth via a stout 2m28.97s best.Fifth was the big Falcon GT-F, George Miedecke punching in a 2m29.93s best late in the session to finish first of the Aussie Muscle Cars. Jeremy Gray drove earlier with the car in the top-10 for most of the 70-minutes.Garth Walden completed the top six in the Race for a Cure Evo thanks to his final-lap effort of 2m30.0900s.The No 69 HSV GTS completed significant setup work throughout a majority of the session as they set the seventh fastest time, John Bowe needing just one flyer to bank a solid 2m30.1020s best.Dylan Thomas / Kyle Austin (EVO), Simon Hodges / Jayden Ojeda / Iain Salteri (BMW) and the young-gun combo of Zac Raddatz and Jack Winter completed the top-10.In the classes, the No. 64 Chris Lillis / Nathan Callaghan / Matt Holt HSV topped Class A1 and was 14th outright, while the Geoff and David Russell combo was fastest in Class B and one spot further up the outright order, in 13th.The No. 89 Jake Williams / Rodney Strait BMW E36 topped Class C, the No. 7 N-Gen Racing Hyundai I30N an impressive second with Kaden Olsen and Frank Mammarella behind the wheel.Impressively, the sister No. 8 car was fourth in class despite an overnight repair and having completed zero laps yesterday.The No. 47 Honda Integra topped a tight battle in Class D, just 0.8 seconds covering the three fastest cars.Brian Callaghan and David Baker topped the charts while Jimmy Vernon and Harry Gray were just 0.4s behind. Teenagers Lachlan Mineeff and Thomas Sargent were third, a further 0.4s further back.The No. 2 David Noble / David Worrell / Andrew McMaster Mazda topped Class E.One red flag interruption stopped the session early in the piece to deal with the No. 8 Hyundai, that was stranded on the circuit on it’s out lap. The car was recovered and resumed to complete the remaining 60-minutes reliably.Attention turns to qualifying, the two-part session commencing at 2.35pm local time.The bottom 50% of the field will qualify first, followed by the top half of the field in a second, 30-minute session soon afterwards.