William Exton has secured pole position for his Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia debut at Phillip Island this afternoon, the 21-year-old Kiwi outpacing fellow countryman Tom Bewley by nearly three-tenths of a second.
In a fiercely competitive qualifying session, Exton, driving the #42 TekworkX Motorsport Porsche, set a blistering 1:29.8194 – the only driver to break into the 1:29s all weekend. He achieved this early in the session, a mark that remained unchallenged. Exton came close later on in the session, setting another laptime under the 1:30 bracket, though he couldn’t better the time.
Fellow series debutant Bewley, 17, came closest to Exton with a 1:30.1181, securing an all-kiwi front row for the opening race.
Hunter Robb also demonstrated strong pace, qualifying the #69 Jones Motorsport entry in seventh, eight-tenths adrift of Exton. Jackson Rooney completed the Kiwi contingent, finishing tenth in class and 12th overall, giving all four drivers a solid platform for the race.
The season’s opening race is scheduled for 3:50 pm NZT and will be broadcast live and free on the Porsche Motorsport YouTube channel.
Full Qualifying Results below:
| Pos | Car | Competitor/Team | Driver | CL | Fatest Lap | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 42 | Tractor Repairs & Spares | Willie Exton (NZ) | Pro | 1:29.8194* | |
| 2 | 4 | Team Porsche New Zealand /EBM | Tom Bewley (NZ) | Pro | 1:30.1181 | 0:00.2987 |
| 3 | 777 | Sonic Motor Racing /Dexion | Jake Santalucia (Vic) | Pro | 1:30.1688 | 0:00.3494 |
| 4 | 79 | DNA Autosport | Ryan Casha (Qld) | Pro | 1:30.3114 | 0:00.4920 |
| 5 | 6 | Tyler Greenbury Racing | Tyler Greenbury (Qld) | Pro | 1:30.4821 | 0:00.6627 |
| 6 | 23 | McElrea Racing | Lachlan Bloxsom (Qld) | Pro | 1:30.5137 | 0:00.6943 |
| 7 | 69 | Jones M’sport /vomofiji.com | Hunter Robb (NZ) | Pro | 1:30.6269 | 0:00.8075 |
| 8 | 39 | Ashley Seward Motorsport | James Lodge (Vic) | Pro | 1:30.7748 | 0:00.9554 |
| 9 | 888 | Jones Motorsport /RennAuto | Ramu Farrell (Qld) | Pro-Am | 1:30.7760 | 0:00.9566 |
| 10 | 7 | Cup Car Engineering | Kamal Mrad (NSW) | Pro | 1:31.1413 | 0:01.3219 |
| 11 | 91 | The Cover Shop /EBM | Lachlan Harburg (Qld) | Pro-Am | 1:31.4499 | 0:01.6305 |
| 12 | 30 | TekworkX /Jackson Rooney | Jackson Rooney (NZ) | Pro | 1:31.6750 | 0:01.8556 |
| 13 | 24 | Cup Car Engineering | Daniel Quimby (NSW) | Class B | 1:31.8234 | 0:02.0040 |
| 14 | 37 | Jones M’sport /Bondi Carpets | Andrew Georgiadis (NSW) | Pro-Am | 1:31.8416 | 0:02.0222 |
| 15 | 99 | Sonic Motor Racing | Damien Flack (Qld) | Pro-Am | 1:32.1539 | 0:02.3345 |
| 16 | 29 | Tyler Greenbury Racing | Lincoln Evans (Qld) | Class B | 1:32.2770 | 0:02.4576 |
| 17 | 11 | Aera Cloud & Cyber Security | Eric Constantinidis NSW | Pro-Am | 1:32.5196 | 0:02.7002 |
| 18 | 25 | Auticon /Wall Racing | Benjamin Taylor (Vic) | Pro | 1:32.8187 | 0:02.9993 |
| 19 | 35 | Rentcorp Forklifts | Indiran Padayachee (NSW) | Pro-Am | 1:32.8831 | 0:03.0637 |
| 20 | 47 | Effect Building Projects | Stephen Moylan (NSW) | B | 1:33.4519 | 0:03.6325 |
| 21 | 87 | DW Motorsport | David Greig (Vic) | Class B | 1:33.9864 | 0:04.1670 |
| 22 | 96 | Entertainment Park | John Papantoniou (NSW) | Pro-Am | 1:34.4695 | 0:04.6501 |
| 23 | 55 | AeroAdapt /Tigani M’sport | David Valeo (NSW) | Class B | 1:35.7961 | 0:05.9767 |
Header Image: TekworkX Motorsport Facebook
