Garth Tander has continued his perfect return to the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS by taking the co-driver pole position, as teammate Yasser Shahin did likewise in his session to start from the prime spot for this afternoon’s opening race.
Shahin was the quickest in his session by 1.723s as he mastered the tricky track conditions in The Bend Motorsport Park Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to set a 1m 10.953s.
Second in Pro-Am was Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Prince Jefri Ibrahim, while the Gtechniq Audi of Liam Talbot led the C-Tech Laser R8 of Tony Bates and Harrolds Racing Team’s Ross Poulakis in the squad’s new Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Fastest qualifier in Am was Matt Stoupas in the lead KFC Audi, with his 1m 12.276s quick enough to land on the outright front row. In a class featuring entries exclusive to the four-ringed marque, the Catan example of Mark Rosser led James Koundouris for Supabarn Supermarkets and Gary Higgon in the second KFC R8.
Third on the outright grid will be GT Trophy’s Brad Schumacher in his older spec Kelso Electrical R8 LMS GT3 Ultra as Scott Taylor in his Porsche GT3-R and debutant Michael Kokkinos in his Launch Racing Audi completed the field.
Tander continued the Audi stranglehold in his session by setting a time of 1m 07.607s to lead C-Tech Laser’s David Reynolds by 0.368s, while Triple Eight Race Engineering driver Shane van Gisbergen was lead Mercedes in third.
Gtechniq Audi driver Fraser Ross and Harrold Racing Team’s Peter Hackett rounded out the Pro-Am Class.
Paul Stokell led the way in Am in the KFC Audi he shares with Higgon, with Rosser falling just 0.351s short of pole. Class leader Stoupas was third as Theo Koundouris completed the field as it was covered by just under a second.
Schumacher was on top again in GT Trophy as Taylor held second from Kokkinos.
A 60 minute race is coming up for Round 2 of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS at 1:00pm AEST live on Stan Sport.
The SpeedSeries at Queensland Raceway will feature seven racing categories and 12 hours of live and ad-break free coverage on Stan Sport across Saturday and Sunday.
The coverage will be broadcast on Stan Sport between 11am-5pm on both Saturday and Sunday.
Free to air coverage will feature on 9Gem or 9Go! depending on the viewing state. CLICK HERE for all the information.
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International viewers can watch the Queensland Raceway action via motorsport.tv
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