News
Golding quickest ever at Symmons in S5000 Practice
JAMES GOLDING has banked the fastest ever recorded lap time of Symmons Plains Raceway in the first official practice session for the VHT S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship.
The Team Valvoline GRM driver topped the 25-minute session with a 49.34s flyer; well beneath Alfie Costanzo’s 41-year-old race lap record, and the quickest ever recorded in a timed session at the venue.
Times are excted to tumble as the cars are tuned further into the weekend; a second practice session to come on Sunday afternoon prior to Qualifying on Monday morning, with the lap record expected to fall in the opening race of the weekend.
Golding’s flyer was 0.3 seconds quicker than second-placed Tom Randle’s best aboard his Team BRM entry, while Randle’s teammate Joey Mawson was an impressive third in his first ever official drive of the V8-powered open wheeler.
Earlier in the day, Randle topped a 10-minute ‘warm up’ session on his first drive in any car since his recent Cancer treatments.
The top three cars all lapped beneath the 50-second barrier in practice.
Double-duty driver Nathan Hearne, who is splitting his efforts between Valvoline-backed S5000 and TransAm entries this weekend, was fourth fastest in his GRM-prepared entry.
Tommy Smith was an impressive fifth fastest; the top five covered by exactly one second. Double Gold Star champion Tim Macrow was sixth quickest.
Cooper Webster, Ricky Capo, Luis Leeds, Antonio Astuti and Brayden Willmington completed the field.
A second 25-minute session will complete official practice at Symmons Plains, set to commence at 2:00pn local time.
CLICK HERE for practice one results