News
M2 flyer puts Hill & Sargent on top as field heads to qualifying
THE BENCHMARK has been set for Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour competitors thanks to a Practice 3 flyer from young star, Tom Sargent.
The 20-year-old from Young in country New South Wales, punched out a stunning 2m25.9732s flyer to top practice 3 aboard the brand-new Tegra Australia BMW M2 Competition he’ll share this weekend with reigning Carrera Cup champion, Cameron Hill.
RESULTS: Practice 3
The lap was comfortably the quickest of the event so far and came in cool but clear and sunny conditions at Mount Panorama.
While Sargent’s margin to the remainder of the field was significant – 1.5 seconds – times were tight behind with a group of the outright-contending BMWs all closely matched.
David Russell pushed the #40 M4 he’ll share with Karl Begg and Nash Morris to second, while the Will Davison, Tim Leahey and Beric Lynton #23 M3 was third off the back of Leahey’s early efforts in the 40-minute session.
The Aaren, Drew and Wayne Russell entry was fourth while Anton de Pasquale ensured his M4, to be shared with Anthony Soole and Adam Burgess was fifth.
The Slade / Soole (M4) and Ojeda / Hodges (M4) BMW entries completed a seven-car sweep of the top spots for the German marque – yet to be defeated in 6-Hour competition.
Dylan O’Keeffe, Mike Sheargold and Ollie Shannon topped class A1 in their RAM / GWR Mercedes AMG A45 and were eighth outright.
Driving the same car, Shannon was on the A1 class pole last year with another strong showing on the cards this weekend.
Aaron Cameron pushed the Ford Mustang GT he’ll share with Nick and Cameron McLeod to ninth outright and quickest in Class A2, while Will Brown, Rod Salmon and Mark Griffith completed the 1o in their AMG A45.
An impressive rebound from yesterday’s fire saw the David Campbell / Cameron Crick Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 10 third of the A1 runners and 11th outright.
Class B was again led by the Holden Commodore SSV of Mark Mallard and Matt Forbes Wilson, while Jake Camilleri and Scott Nicholas completed a sweep of the three practice sessions in Class C aboard their Grand Prix Mazda 3MPS.
Supercars young-gun Jay Robotham helped the BPro Racing Toyota he’ll share with Brett Parrish and Mitchell Wooller top Class D in an impressive 39th outright.
Andrew McMaster and Dave Worrell topped Class E in their Mazda, placing an impressive 54th outright in the process.
65 cars took to the track in the session.
An early red flag suspended the session when the #11 Subaru BRZ – fresh from an all-night repair following an accident yesterday – stopped on the run to the Wurth Cutting.
The session was then called with 20 seconds remaining on the clock when Lindsay Kearns crashed at the top of Mount Panorama in the Ford Mustang he’ll share with Hadrian Morrall.
Teams now have several hours to regroup prior to qualifying this afternoon, the bottom 50% of the field to start their 20 minute session at 4:05pm.
The top half will fight for pole 20 minutes later, with both sessions to be streamed live, ad-break free and on-demand on Stan Sports.