Steve Owen has blown away the Australian GT Presented by Pirelli field by taking Pole position in the Supaloc Racing Ford GT.
Impressively Owen’s pole time of 1:27.74 was set in a 2011 specification Ford GT, a car that competes in the second division Trophy category rather than the outright Championship class.
The first morning Qualifying session wasn’t without controversy. Matt Campbell in the Triffid Ginetta set the fastest lap with a 1:27.98, however the time was later taken away by track stewards due to Campbell exceeding track limits. Only 0.04 behind, international GT star Christopher Mies in the JAMEC PEM Audi R8 moved up to 1st place. Following Mies, Nathan Antunes set 2nd fastest time and impressing on his Australian GT debut 17 year old Aaron Seton finished the session with 3rd fastest time.
The session came to an unfortunate early end after Daniel Stutterd spun the FreeM Lamborghini on the exit of turn 7 and was collected by Jan Jinadasa who was following a few car lengths behind. Both cars sustained significant damage that unfortunately can’t be repaired this weekend.
The two-driver teams deliberated over whether to put their faster drivers in for the cooler morning session or wait until the afternoon session and hope that track evolution resulted in faster times. The Trass Family Motorsport team elected to wait but it potentially proved to be the wrong decision with Lester qualifying 4th; the first time the Ferrari 458 hasn’t started from pole position this season.
This leaves Chris Mies and Ryan Millier in the JAMEC PEM Audi starting from 2nd position and Nathan Antune’s morning time of 1:28.4 was good enough for 3rd on the grid.
Morgan Haber placed the Erebus AMG SLS an encouraging 5th followed by the Porsche GT3-R of Aaron Seton and Scott Taylor. Justin McMillan and Glenn Wood put the Interlloy Lamborghini Gallardo into 7th position.
Grant Denyer recovered from a minor off in Qualifying 1 to set 8th fastest time in the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari. Grant will be without his regular co-driver Tony D’Alberto this weekend, D’Alberto had to leave the circuit to be present for the birth of his first child. We wish Tony and Steff all the best.
Following their penalty the Hovey and Campbell will start 13th in the Triffid Ginetta G55, one of a number of drivers to fall foul of the stewards due to exceeding the track limits.
In Trophy Class the Ford GT of Steve Owen and Kevin Weeks dominated, Greg Taylor and Barton Mawer’s second placed Adina Apartments Audi R8 was a full 1.8 seconds off the pace set by Owen. Warren Luff pushed the Fastway Porsche he shares with Simon Ellingham into 3rd place, Mark Griffith placed 4th in his Audi R8 and after a troubled start to the season Ben Foessel and Hayden Cooper in the Motorschool Racing Ginetta placed an encouraging 5th.
Richard Gartner set fastest time in the Challenge class in the Safe-T-Stop Porsche with Michael O’Donnell giving chase in a similar Porsche. Championship leader Tony Alford qualified 3rd, this weekend running in a Nissan GTR after the Lotus he regularly competes in was damaged during testing.
Australian GT will return to the circuit for Race 1 tomorrow at 12:45pm and Race 2 Sunday at 9:20am, both an hour in duration.
If you’re at the circuit be sure to visit the Australian GT Paddock located on the outside of turn 4 to see the cars and drivers. Otherwise all sessions are telecast live and in HD on Australian television on Fox Sports 5 (Channel 506 on Foxtel) over the course of the weekend.
