Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti have ended the first day of GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS’ second round on top of the timesheets – posting the fastest time in Pre-Qualifying.
Running on their home track in Sydney and keen to make amends for the challenging season opener at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit last month, the pair were clear frontrunners in the final dress rehearsal before tomorrow’s qualifying – their early time of 1m25.926 proving unbeatable for most of the session.
With Ojeda behind the wheel of the Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the opening stint, the New South Welshman was on the money right from the get-go, producing the session’s, and the day's, quickest time on his fifth lap around the circuit.
From that point onwards, the rest of the field tried hard to outdo that lap but to no avail – Brad Schumacher and Broc Feeney eventually the closest in their Audi R8 LMS EVO II with a competitive time of 1m26.043s.
Very little separated the next best placed teams, with Schumacher’s Melbourne Performance Centre Audi teammates Steve Brooks and Ryan Wood edging out the Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 of Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte for the third fastest time by just two hundredths of a second.
Rounding out the top five was the third Melbourne Performance Centre Pro-Am entry of Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles – the New Zealand pair just one tenth off the Ferrari of Evans and Schutte with a time of 1m26.540s.
After posting the second fastest Am Cup time in Practice 2, Renee Gracie went fastest in the class for Pre-Qualifying, guiding her Audi R8 LMS EVO II to a time of 1m29.229s – edging out Shane Woodman and Ben Schoots in their Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO by three tenths.
View the full results here.
GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS returns with Pre-Qualifying at 1:40pm AEST before hosting the night race at 7:55pm AEST.
Ojeda and Lucchitti finish Friday with day's fastest time
