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Ojeda’s three-peat quest to start from Bathurst 6 Hour pole
Jayden Ojeda’s bid for a Bathurst 6 Hour three-peat will come from pole position after a record-breaking qualifying session in the #1 Lubrimaxx Secure Wealth BMW M4 he will share tomorrow with Simon Hodges and George Miedecke.
FULL QUALIFYING RESULTS – CLICK HERE
It was Will Davison (#23 BMW M3) who initially looked to be in the box seat, logging a 2m20.0524s – already two seconds faster than his qualifying record from last year – to hold sway before a mid-session stoppage.
The catalyst for that red flag period was the stricken #118 BMW of Cameron Crick parked on Mountain Straight with limp mode issues.
That was disastrous for the Supercars wildcard driver, leaving him and Dean Campbell to start from well outside the top 60 tomorrow.
When things resumed, Davison went quicker again on a 2m19.9009s only for Ojeda (#1 BMW M4) to eclipse that by more than three tenths.
That 2m19.5354s effort stood the test of time, with proceedings drawing to an early close after Harry Inwood (#143 BMW 1M) and Oliver Loiacono (#140 Mitsubishi Lancer) collided at Forrest’s Elbow to trigger another red flag.
Behind Ojeda and Davison came David Russell (#81 BMW M4), Thomas Randle (#92 BMW M2) and Anton De Pasquale (#115 BMW M4).
The first non-BMW was sixth, being Brandon Madden in the #10 HSV VF GTS.
Seventh outright and first in the A2 class belonged to Zak Best (#21 Ford Mustang), with Grant Johnson, Tyler Mecklem and Aaron Seton rounding out the 10.
Earlier, the bottom-half portion of qualifying had been comfortably topped by the car which only today got the nod to join the field.
That was the Ford Mustang of Tim Brook/Jarrod Hughes/Graham Cheney which had been on the standby list, and was activated after a Practice 3 incident forced the BMW M3 of Michael Auld/Hayden Auld/Tyler Everingham to withdraw.
The #50 Mustang set a 2m24.7274s, which proved good enough for outright 12th in the end.
In-class pole positions sorted in Q1 included the #77 MRPS Iolar AED Volkswagen Scirocco of Patrick Navin/ Nathan Halstead (Class C), the #500 Castrol/AC Delco/EFS/Total Parts Subaru BRZ of Alice Buckley/Tyler Cheney/Hayden Hume (Class D), and the #20 Beller Motorsport Mazda 3 of Adam Brewer/Andrew Jackman/Carter Fox (Class E).
The wait was a little longer for A1, B1 and B2, those honours ultimately going to Cody Gillis (#93 Waltec Motorsport BMW M2), Courtney Prince (#999 Team Buccini Racing BMW 340i) and Chris Holdt (#19 Axis Surveys BMW M3) respectively.
Not taking any part in qualifying were a pair of Practice 3 victims, the #2 BMW 125i of Andrew McMaster/Brett Osborn/Luke Harrison and the #142 Honda Integra of Rob Zoanetti/ Shayne Nowickyj/ Mitchell McGarry as they try to complete repairs in time for race start.
Likewise, the #111 BMW 335i (James Meaden/David Murphy/ Mathew Thewlis) did not make it out from the pits at all.
The Bathurst 6 Hour field will return to the track tomorrow morning for a 20-minute warm-up from 8:55am, before the race itself gets underway at 11:15am. Full coverage of the event will be SBS, Fox Sports and Kayo Sports, with a live stream for international audiences.
Coverage Provided by V8 Sleuth