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March 30, 2018 | General

JORDAN COX LEADS FINAL PRACITCE WITH LAST LAP FLYER

FEAR NOT, Mitsubishi fans, Jordan Cox is officially in the house at Mount Panorama.Worries of a BMW domination this weekend was interrupted slightly by the internet sensation as he stormed to the fastest time in practice three this morning, in a one-lap dash at the end of the one-hour session.RESULTS: Practice 3A late red flag allowed drivers one flyer at the end of the session and it was Cox who capitalised the most, leaping from 15th to first with a stunning 2m25.294s – the second fastest lap of the entire weekend and 0.6s quicker than the next best.They were perfect conditions and it was the perfect scenario for Cox to once again enforce his status as one of Australian motorsport’s true cult heroes – though he will unquestionably be keen to do the same again in qualifying this afternoon.It was the first B6HR session not headed by a BMW this weekend, though both key Munich monsters were looming close behind.Grant and Iain Sherrin were second, the defending polesitters showing their hand for the first time this weekend as leading BMW.Their 2m25.898s lap edged out the otherwise dominant Beric Lynton / Tim Leahey M3 by 0.2s.After impressing on Friday, Jimmy Vernon continued his strong form in the No. 14 Mitsubishi; leaping to fourth at the same time that Cox went to the top right at the end of practice.Craig Baird and Garth Walden did the job for Mercedes-AMG in fifth place (2m27.37) while Nathan Morcom and Chaz Mostert were in close company (2m27.31) in sixth.Huge improvement from the Begg / Anthony Mercedes AMG C63 saw them drop into the 2m28’s and the top ten outright in eighth place.Tim Slade and Dylan Thomas were ninth, though an otherwise decent weekend for the CGR performance team began to unravel this morning when the car reportedly broke a piston during the session.The team is set to change engines in the meantime in a bid to return for qualifying this afternoon.Completing the top-10 was the Thomas Muller / Shane Smollen BMW 1M entered by on-track motorsport.With Cox (Mitsubishi) and Begg (Mercedes) fastest in A1 and A2, respectively, the remainder of the class battles were also highly competitive.Todd Hazelwood set the quickest time in B1 of the weekend so far in his M135i, while Brett Howard again stunned the establishment in the Krincorp VF SS Commodore; lapping the quickest of any non-class A car and hovering around the top-10 outright for much of the session.Like Cox at the front, Gavin Ross banged in the fastest class C time of the day in his Subaru late in the session, while Liam McAdam pushed his Toyota 86 to the point in Class D.As he was yesterday, Ian Salteri was fastest in Class E in his Nissan Pulsar.Cool conditions on the Mountain this morning will give way to an expected top of 30 degrees this afternoon, with the bottom 50% of the field to commence proceedings at 2:25pm local time.Live audio and timing coverage will be available on the Bathurst 6 Hour website.