All three New Zealanders competing in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia have qualified within the top seven for today’s opening race of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia at Phillip Island.
It’s Team Porsche New Zealand Scholarship recipient Zac Stichbury who qualified fastest of the three, a 1:31.8 enough to put him on the front row of the grid, alongside pole-sitter Marcos Flack.
Stichbury had led proceedings through the early stages and pole position was looking a real possibility, only for Flack to top his time by .48 of a second to take a commanding pole.
He’ll have teammate Marco Giltrap keeping him company from the row behind with fourth spot on the grid. Giltrap will start next to Aron Shields.
Australians Hamish Fitzsimmons and Lachlan Bloxsom lock out the third row and are closely followed by Sonic’s Ronan Murphy in seventh, the last Kiwi on the grid.
Fitzsimmons was the cause of a brief red flag in the session after beaching his car at Lukey Heights mid-way through qualifying.
Porsche Sprint Challenge will race three times at the Victorian circuit today with the opening race at 12.05pm NZ time. Race 2 follows at 3.25pm with the final race of the event at 5.30pm.
All three races will be live streamed on BlendLine TV’s YouTube channel.
Header Image: Earl Bamber Motorsport
