Melbourne Performance Centre’s Yasser Shahin and Garth Tander have led the way after the opening practice session at The Bend Motorsport Park as the build up starts towards Round 5 of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS.
The Shahin/Tander combination led the first of Triple Eight Race Engineering’s two Mercedes-AMG GT3s driven by Prince Jefri Ibrahim and Broc Feeney as just 0.326s separated the pair after the 30-minute session.
Signalling its competitiveness early was the Adrian Deitz Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in third, with Tony D’Alberto also set to share duties this weekend.
Fourth was the second Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes shared by Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim on Australian debut and Jamie Whincup, while the last of the Pro-Am runners was the Liam Talbot/Fraser Ross Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II featuring an updated a new livery this weekend in recognition of new major sponsorship from Shannons Insurance.
Leading the Am Class competitors were the two KFC Audis of Paul Stokell sharing with Gary Higgon and Matt Stoupas, with the Harrolds Racing Rosso Volante Mercedes of Ross Poulakis rounding out the top three. Michael Sheargold rounded out the field in his RAM Motorsport Mercedes-AMG.
Valmont Racing made a successful debut in Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS by leading the GT Trophy Class with the Mercedes-AMG shared by Marcel Zalloua and Sergio Pires leading the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Ultra of Launch Racing’s Michael Kokkinos.
The battle in GT4 will be close as the Harrolds Racing Rosso Volante Mercedes-AMG GT4 to be shared by Christos Batzios and Sam Brabham led the similar entry of Mark Griffith, who will drive solo.
The second practice session at The Bend Motorsport Park will commence at 2:05pm local time (2:35pm AEDT).