GT World Challenge Australia drivers Brendon Leitch, Tim Miles and Jaxon Evans all enjoyed strong starts to their weekend at Bathurst, as did TCR Australia debutant Blake Knowles.
In the GT World Challenge, Evans began the weekend in Arise Racing’s #8 Ferrari 296 GT3 he shares with Elliott Schutte by topping first practice, setting the benchmark at 2m 02.943s.
Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot were 00.1393 seconds behind in the second Arise Racing Ferrari, while the all-Kiwi pairing of Leitch and Miles completed the top three a further three-tenths behind in the Dayle ITM Team MPC R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
Mostert and Talbot enter the round with the championship lead, 30 points to the good of Supercars championship leader Will Brown and Brad Schumacher, who share the #87 Shaw & Partners Audi R8 LMS EVO ll. Evans and Schutte are a further four points adrift and in title contention.
Brown and Schumacher could only manage fifth fastest in opening practice, nearly a second off the pace.
In Practice 2, Jayden Ojeda sent the Realta/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo around the mountain in 2m 03.457 to top the session
Leitch and Miles were just 0.135s behind in second, ahead of the #81 Audi of Alex Peroni and Mark Rosser.
Mostert and Talbot were the fastest of the Ferraris in fourth, ahead of the Grove Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Stephen and Brenton Grove. Evans and Schutte were sixth, less than half a second off the session’s benchmark, and one-tenth to the good of Brown and Schumacher.
Knowles is making his TCR Australia debut this weekend and was 11th fastest in 99motorsport’s Audi in Practice 1, completing a valuable seven laps in just his second trip to Mount Panorama for a best time of 2:21.7394.
He knocked a full three seconds off this time for a 2:18.4703 flyer in Practice 2, which was again the 11th fastest time.
The GT World Challenge Australia returns to the track for qualifying at 10.15 am NZST on Saturday ahead of Race 1 at 2.45 pm and Race 2 at 4.55 pm on Sunday.
TCR Australia qualifies at 11.10 am and returns for Race 1 at 4.05 pm ahead of two races to close out the season on Sunday.
Qualifying is not available to watch in New Zealand, but all races will be broadcast via a free live stream.
