Last start winner Jayden Ojeda has ended the opening day of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS season finale at the Bathurst International.
Ojeda sent the Realta/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo around the mountain in 2m 03.457s to top the session as co-driver Paul Lucchitti completed the session.
The New Zealand team of Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles were second, just 0.135s behind the leading Mercedes-AMG in the Dayle ITM Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.
A quick time for Alex Peroni on his visit to Bathurst placed the ACM Finance/Team BRM in third at the end of Friday, just 0.149s off the benchmark time in the Audi to be co-driven by Mark Rosser.
Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot were fourth in the lead Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 ahead of the Grove Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which grazed the wall late in the session.
The second Arise Racing GT Ferrari of Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte was sixth, with the Brad Schumacher and Will Brown Shaw & Partners/Kelso Electrical Team MPC Audi ending the session 0.109s behind third in the title race.
Declan Fraser and Peter Hackett in the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo were eighth as Alex Fontana alongside ‘Hash’ driving the Car Collection Motorsport Porsche 991 GT3-R followed by the OnlyFans Team MPC Audi of Renee Gracie and Paul Stokell completed the top 10.
Leading the Am Class was the RAM Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Garth Walden and Mike Sheargold.
The 111 Racing entry of Axle Donaldson and Darren Currie was second from the Koundouris brothers James and Theo in the Supabarn Supermarkets/Tigani Motorsport completed a Mercedes-AMG sweep of the Am Class.
Valmont Racing’s Sergio Pires is going solo in the Audi placing fourth from Ash Samadi in a Team MPC’s entry, but the latter hit a wall as the session was concluding.
Black Wolf Motorsport’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Ben Schoots and Shane Woodman followed ahead of Marc Cini’s Hallmarc Audi and Stephen Coe’s Trophy Class Ferrari 458 GT3 closed out the field.
A remarkable effort from the Milldun crew to repair the KMB Motorsport Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 after a hub failed led to Valentino Astuti emerging from the garage to complete a systems check ahead of qualifying.
Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS action continues tomorrow with qualifying at 8:15am AEDT.