Record pace

A world-class line-up of cars and drivers have arrived at Mount Panorama for Sunday’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour race, and it is Audi that is setting the pace, with Frederic Vervisch in the Jamec Pem R8 LMS setting the fastest time around the Mountain.

The Audis were impressive all day, but it was in the final practice session of the day that the times tumbled.

In the fourth and final practice session of the day, two-time Bathurst 12 hour winner, Christopher Mies set the early running, when he recorded a  2:03.648 aboard the #74 Jamec Pem Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 to take the top spot. Markus Winkelhock also ran strongly in his stint in the #74 car, while Robin Frijns in the #37 Audi Sport Team WRT car ultimately finished the session in fourth with a 2:03.7760s.

But it was Vervisch’s run that set the new benchmark, recording a blistering  2:03.13s just before the session was cut short due to an accident. Vervisch, who is driving with Kelvin van der Linde and local champion Garth Tander this weekend, showed an incredible turn of speed around the 6.2 kilometre course despite this being his first time at the mountain.

“It’s difficult to see the real pace of everyone and the second thing is you have to have a clear lap as well,” Vervisch said at the end of the session. “Not bad, for a first time for sure better than I expected so it’s good to be in front but you want to be there on Sunday.”

The performance of the Audis today has been impressive and bodes well for the remainder of the weekend. At the end of the day, five of the eight customer teams had recorded times in the top 10 – including two of the top three.

The teams will return to the track tomorrow for final practice before the Top 10 shootout in the afternoon to determine the grid positions for Sunday’s race.