A stunning 2m 01.891s lap has given Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Broc Feeney provisional pole heading into the Top 10 Shootout at the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour.
Feeney eclipsed the time set by fellow Mercedes-AMG driver and reigning dual winner Luca Stolz of SunEnergy1 as Team WRT’s Sheldon van der Linde led the session for most of its duration and remained third 0.323s off the eventual pace.
Mercedes-AMG GruppeM Racing improved significantly compared to the final practice session as Maro Engel took fourth ahead of the second Triple Eight Race Engineering entry of Jordan Love.
International star Matt Campbell completed a swift improvement during the closing stages of qualifying to elevate the Manthey EMA Porsche Type-992 GT3R into sixth ahead of Riccardo Feller for KFC/Jamec Racing Audi and the Wash It/Jamec Racing R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2 of Kelvin van der Linde.
Maxime Martin made it both Team WRT BMW M4 GT3s in the top 10 in ninth as Manthey EMA’s Alessio Picariello completed the runners for the Top 10 Shootout in the previous generation Porsche.
A shock to miss a Top 10 Shootout berth was Craft Bamboo Racing’s Max Goetz by just 0.270s as Lee Holdsworth for Hallmarc Racing and the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Cam Waters also start outside.
Glen Wood in the M Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 was the star of the first session for the bottom 50% of the field as the team will start 14th on the grid after setting a 2m 03.424s. Bathurst 1000 winner Luke Youlden was 15th for Valmont Racing ahead of Tony D’Alberto in the Wall Racing Lamborghini and David Russell for Tigani Motorsport.
The Top 10 Shootout to decide the Allan Simonsen Pole Position Trophy will begin at 4:05pm AEDT.