GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS officially made history when it completed its opening session of the weekend at Hidden Valley Raceway on Friday afternoon as it kicked off the Shannons SpeedSeries' first ever event in Darwin.
Taking out top spot for the session was Team BRM's Alex Peroni and Mark Rosser, who sent the benchmark aboard the Team BRM Audi R8 LMS EVO II – Peroni's 24th-lap effort of 1:05.420 proving enough to secure top spot by less than one thousandth of a second.
Finishing behind the Audi was the Move My Wheels by Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti, with the former setting his best lap early in the session.
Rounding out the top three was the Team BRM / Wolfbrook Motorsport Audi R8 LMS EVO II of Ryan Wood and Steve Brooks, whose best time of 1:05.483 left them just over six hundredths of a second adrift of the session-leading Audi.
Ferrari claimed fourth on the timesheets courtesy of ARGT's Jaxon Evans and Elliot Schutte, with the pair producing a 1:05.585 to finish less than two tenths away from the outright pace.
Completing the top five was the Geyer Valmont Racing by Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO of Brendon Leitch and Sergio Pires, with the duo's best lap of 1:05.616 leaving them just under two tenths behind the session leaders.
In the Trophy Class, AED Consulting by Tigani Motorsport's Luke Youlden and Nathan Halstead led the way after guiding their Porsche 911 GT3 R to seventh outright on the timesheets.
The pair's 1:05.654 was more than one second quicker than the next-best Trophy entry of Paul Stokell and Matthew Stoupas in the KFC / Team MPC Audi R8 LMS EVO II.
The opening session of the weekend was interrupted by two red flags, the second resulting in a lengthy stoppage following an incident for Shane Smollen in the #56 Kollosche AMG by Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO.
Despite the interruptions, the session delivered an exciting start to the weekend, with less than one thousandth of a second separating the top two cars at the chequered flag.
View the full times for Practice 1 here.
The next session for GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS is the Bronze Driver Practice Session at 3:30pm ACST.