A late surge from Thomas Randle has seen him and Mark Rosser in the Castrol Team BRM Audi R8 LMS EVO II top the time sheets in the final practice session of a busy Friday for GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS.
In the dying stages of the session, Randle’s final lap in the Castrol Team BRM Audi clocked in at 1:45.591, which saw the Audi jump up the order and replace the Kelso Electrical / Team MPC Audi R8 LMS EVO II by just under three tenths of a second.
Up until that point, the Audi of Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher were on top of the timesheets in what was a remarkable effort from both drivers having missed the day’s opening two sessions due to an engine change.
With Team BRM / Wolfbrook Motorsport’s Ryan Wood and Steve Brooks in third with a fastest lap time of 1:45.900 in their Audi R8 LMS EVO II, it marked a dominant session for the manufacturer with all of the top three spots.
In fourth for the session was Move My Wheels by Tigani Motorsport’s Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti, who trailed Wood and Brooks by three tenths by the end of the session, while teammates Brendon Leitch and Sergio Pires rounded out the session’s top five.
In what was an extremely close battle between the Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVOs, just four hundredths of a second split the two Tigani Motorsport entries.
In the Trophy Class, Volante Rosso Motorsport’s Alex Gardner and Ben Porter finished the session with the fastest time out of the three entrants, with their best lap time of 1:47.771 under two tenths quicker than the AED Consulting by Tigani Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3R of Luke Youlden and Nathan Halstead.
Rounding out the Trophy Class for the session was the KFC / Team MPC Audi R8 LMS EVO II of Matthew Stoupas and Paul Stokell, whose time of 1:49.369 was more than one second off Youlden and Halstead.
The only drama to occur during the one-hour session was a red flag midway through the session when the McLaren 720S GT3 EVO of Volante Rosso Motorsport's Geoff Emery and Josh Hunt stopped mid-lap, however there was no damage to the car, and they managed to get going shortly after.
GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS will now turn its attention to a double qualifying session on Saturday morning at 10:15am ACST, while the race takes place at 4:20pm.
All three sessions will be broadcast via both FOX SPORTS Australia and Kayo SPORTS as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries.