News
BMW v Mustang battle continues in final pre-qualy hitout
THE BMW-versus-Mustang theme of this year’s Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour has continued in the final practice session on Saturday morning.
A red-flag filled session saw a one-lap special from Will Davison push the #23 BMW to the top of the charts following a lengthy early Red Flag, his 2m19.6313s best the quickest of the weekend so far.
He was chased on their one clear lap by the returning Cameron Hill, who put the #1 BMW second.
Aaron Seton then continued Ford’s fine weekend by putting his #30 Mustang into third place outright and top of the A2 brigade, to continue hopes that the V8-powered Muscle will be legitimate outright contenders for the outright results this weekend.
A flyer from Tim Brook put his #51 IES Motorsport Mustang fourth while Tom Randle’s sole flyer put him fifth outright and third in Class X.
A pair of Buccini’s topped the A1 and B1 classes respectively, with Karlie Buccini quickest in Class B1 as her #999 team searches for a Bathurst three-peat this weekend.
The car co-driven by her dad, Paul, was just one spot behind in 19th outright but topped the A1 runners – just in front of the #99 Waltec Motorsport BMW.
A fight appears in store in Class C after the #84 AC Store VW Scirocco R topped the class, comfortably in front of the Keene’s VW that was the quickest on Friday in the Performance category.
The fifth-gear motoring Subaru BRZ of Daniel Flanagan, Caleb Hefren and Dean Chapman were the quickest in Class D, ending 40th outright and 1.1 seconds up on Nick Windsor and Chris Whittaker in their Toyota.
For the fourth time this weekend, the #686 Honda Accord led the way in Class E with Brett Stevens doing the driving.
The session was stopped several times today which prevented several teams from completing meaningful running.
The first red flew before the session effectively commenced as Tony Levitt’s Mercedes’ stopped on the run out of pit lane at the top of the hill on Mountain Straight, reporting fuel pressure issues.
Then, Tony Alford’s Ford Mustang had a fuel-related issue in pit lane as the field returned during the red flag.
Later, young Aston Davis made contact with the fence at the Elbow in his Toyota 86, the damage to the right front corner requiring a recovery and another pause to the session.
On the upside, all 69 cars appear still in good shape for tackling qualifying this afternoon following the overnight rebuild of the Champ Motorsport HSV Astra that rolled at the Elbow in practice 3 yesterday afternoon.
Norwell Motorplex Qualifying will be split into two, 20-minute segments with the bottom 50% of the field out first; Class C, D and E pole positions to be decided then.
The top half of the field then run separately to decide the grid for the Easter Sunday enduro and the Norwell Motorplex pole award.