Wet weather hits Bathurst Motor Festival

Terry Lawlor’s Nissan GT-R took a commanding pole position for the Heritage Touring Cars at a rain hit Bathurst Motor Festival.

Poor visibility saw the day’s program delayed by an hour before the 350 strong competitor line-up could tackle Mount Panorama.

Lawlor’s GIO GT-R set a 2:43.24s pole time amid the tricky conditions, beating Bryan Sala’s Ford Sierra by 1.6s.

Third placed Mark Eddy’s HR31 Skyline was a further five seconds adrift in third ahead of Gary Collins (Commodore VL) and the Sierras of Duncan McKellar and Chris Stillwell.

The other feature category of the weekend, the Production Sports Cars, saw Brad Shiels take pole in the Imak Porsche GT3 R.

Shiels put down a 2:10.87s best in the early stages of the afternoon’s dry session before a crash between the Porsches of Aaron Tebb and Tim James brought out the red flags.

The Audis of Barton Mawer, Rod Salmon and Mark Griffith filled second through fourth ahead of Neale Muston (Porsche) and Renato Loberto (Ferrari).

Other category poles fells to Luke Searle/Barry Graham (BMW 135i, Production Touring Cars), Matt Palmer (Ford Falcon BF V8 Supercar, NSW Road Racing Club), Garry Hills (Holden Commodore VT, Saloon Cars) and Dean Neville (Chevrolet Camaro, Group N).

Racing action gets underway at Bathurst tomorrow before concluding on Sunday.