Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher have delivered a crucial double pole position, keeping their hopes of claiming the GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS Pro-Am title alive.
The Melbourne Performance Centre duo delivered impressive performances across both Qualifying sessions, edging out their title rivals Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte in the Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 to gain a slight advantage.
Feeney was first to take the wheel of the Audi R8 LMS EVO II, with the Queenslander narrowly out-qualifying Evans in the opening session by just one-tenth of a second. His best time, a 1:29.856, came on his seventh lap.
Although Evans remained on track for two additional laps, he was unable to eclipse the Audi driver’s time, with the West Australian settling for a front-row start alongside his title rival for tomorrow’s race.
Close behind was another Audi–Ferrari battle, led by local duo Ryan Wood and Steve Brooks. Wood steered the Wolfbrook / Team MPC Audi R8 LMS EVO II to a lap just one-tenth quicker than newcomer Josh Buchan in the Zagame Automotive Ferrari 296 GT3, which he shares with Cameron Campbell.
Following a dominant display on Friday, Tigani Motorsport had a challenging opening session as Geyer Valmont Racing’s George King and Realta’s Jayden Ojeda put their Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVOs in fifth and seventh respectively, with the second Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 of Jordan Love splitting the two.
In Qualifying 2, Schumacher took over the reins in the #888 Audi R8 LMS EVO II and dominated his way through the session, with his best time of 1:30.305 just shy of eight-tenths faster than Shannons Volante Rosso Motorsport’s Liam Talbot, while Schutte ended up third a further one-tenth of a second back.
Brooks will start the race in fourth after falling just four hundredths of a second slower than the Pro-Am-leading Ferrari and the returning Shane Smollen ended up fifth after enjoying a solid run in the Claymark/Mach 1 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO he is sharing with Ant Pedersen this weekend.
In the Am Class, Darren Currie and Grant Donaldson qualified on pole position for both sessions, with Currie one and a half seconds ahead of Schoots in Qualifying 1 and Donaldson more than one second ahead of Woodman, as he qualified ninth outright.
GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS will run Race 1 today at 2:26pm AEDT / 4:26pm NZDT.