Glenn Smith and Chris van der Drift have claimed provisional pole position for the first round of the Golden Homes North Island Endurance Series at Hampton Downs.
Driving the McLaren 650 S GT3, the reigning series champions kicked their title defence into action with an early 60-second benchmark time that wouldn’t be bettered across the 40-minute session.
Alex Riberas and Darren Kelly will start alongside the McLaren on the front row having set a late 1.01.185 lap time.
The International Motorsport Audi R8 helmed by Andrew Fawcett and Sam Filmore finished third fastest, albeit 1.6 seconds adrift of the pace-setting McLaren.
The session was suspended temporarily to retrieve the beached BMW M6 of Warwick and Andrew Mortimer who had come unglued at Turn 1. Once the car had returned to the lane the team were able to send it back out on its way to the 16th quickest time.
Lance Hughes and Simon Evans will front the GT B field in their Holden SuperTourer while the Porsche 997 of Rob Williams and Phil Blythe will start on pole in GT C.
Class 1 was headed by Jono Lester and Matt Dovey in the Audi A5 GT, while Class 2 was thumped by Gene Rollinson and Craig Innes whose mid-1.06s times were quick enough to challenge those in GT B.
In the one hour, John De Veth scored pole position in the second SBT Motorsport McLaren 650S with an emphatic performance to finish nearly a second clear of the field.
Reigning one-hour champion Matt Whitaker slotted onto the second spot on the grid in his 991-Gen2 Porsche GT3 Cup.
Tim Edgell set a 1.04.153 in the ITM-backed Holden SuperTourer to end up behind Whitaker.
Andrew Nugent and Simon Evans will start fourth in the BMW M3 E92, ahead of Callum Hedge and Andy Duffin.
The only stoppage of the session came midway through when Peter Begovich came to a halt on the exit of Turn 10. The issue proved to be terminal and V8 Holden wouldn’t return to the circuit for the remainder of the session, eventually ending 31st.
The one-hour race is scheduled to start from 11.30 am before the three-hour commences from 2 pm.
