Mies on record pace in Adelaide

Christopher Mies and JAMEC PEM Audi R8 LMS co-driver Geoff Emery will start the opening race of the 2016 CAMS Australian GT Championship from pole position around the Adelaide Parklands circuit.

Reigning Australian GT champion Mies set a new qualifying lap record time of 1:20.2039, more than four tenths faster that second placed Craig Baird as the German star claimed his first pole position in the category.

Mies set his best time midway through the second qualifying session before Craig Baird went faster in the first two sectors.

However Baird’s advantage evaporated in the final sector, which left the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 driver mystified.

“We’ll have to go back and look at the data,” Baird pondered, “but I wasn’t as fast as Mies in the final sector anyway.”

“The Audi’s strengths are under braking and in the corners,” Mies explained. “The team did a really fantastic job and the car was really good on the bumps.”

Peter Hackett and Dominic Storey ended the day eighth fastest in the Autex Mercedes-AMG GT3 while the sister Eggleston Motorsport entry of Matthew Solomon qualified tenth on his CAMS Australian GT Championship debut.

The two McLaren’s of Nathan Antunes/Elliot Barbour and Nathan Morcom locked out the second row in a strong debut outing from TEKNO Autosports, though team owner Jonathan Webb struggled in the second qualifying session to leave the McLaren Melbourne 650S GT3 in 11th.

Taplin Real Estate driver Dean Canto held provisional pole position after the opening 20-minute qualifying session, a lap which ultimately proved good enough to put the Lamborghini Gallardo in 12th place.

A difficult session for Mark Griffith saw the Hog’s Breath Café/Griffith Corporation car in the gravel at turn one, brushing the wall and damaging the front of the Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The Queenslander also spun at turn four later in the session before ending the day 19th fastest.

Andrew Macpherson showed his fighting spirit after heavily damaging his AMA Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3-R in opening practice.

With the car unable to be repaired prior to qualifying the crew set to work preparing a backup car which Macpherson qualified 25th.

A conservative approach from BMW Team SRM left the Max Twigg/Steve Richards duo in 13th place as the outfit came to grips with the brand-new BMW M6 GT3.

The CAMS Australian GT Championship is on track for its opening race at 12:25pm tomorrow with race two at 9:40am on Saturday and the final race at 9:00am Sunday morning.

All three races will be broadcast live on Fox Sports, channel 506.

Qualifying results