Ryan Wood and Steve Brooks kicked off Round 2 of the GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS in commanding fashion, topping the timesheets in Free Practice 1.
With a wet Sydney Motorsport Park track slowing the early pace, drivers were tentative on the early laps. However, Wood delivered a standout performance in the closing stages, becoming the only driver to dip below the 1:27 mark. Clocking a 1:26.747s in the Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II he shares with Brooks, Wood was in a class of his own, setting the fastest times on his final two laps of the session.
Second fastest were Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte in the Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3, with Evans’ best lap of 1:27.265s just over half a second off Wood’s benchmark.
Rounding out the top three were Alex Peroni and Mark Rosser in the Team BRM Audi, finishing two tenths ahead of fellow Audi drivers Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher. Despite a slight gap between the two Audis, less than five hundredths separated Feeney and Schumacher, with Tigani Motorsport’s George King and Sergio Pires in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 making it three manufacturers inside the top five.
Just missing out on the top five were Brendan Leitch and Tim Miles in the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi, along with Volante Rosso’s Declan Fraser and Liam Talbot in the Aston Martin AMR GT3. Both pairings had been prominent in the early running.
In the Am Class, it was another Team MPC Audi on top, with Renee Gracie clocking a 1:29.483s to narrowly edge out Jim and Theo Koundouris in the Tigani Motorsport Audi by just a tenth.
Action resumes later today with Free Practice 2 at 1:05pm, followed by Pre-Qualifying at 5:40pm AEST.
The action continues later today with Free Practice 2 at 1:05pm and Pre-Qualifying at 5:40pm AEST.