Richards BMW paces Australian GT Practice

Steve Richards has gone quickest in the sole practice session for the Australian GT Championship at the Red Rooster Sydney SuperNight 300.

The BMW Team SRM driver went to the top of the time-sheets in the closing stages of the 30-minute hit-out at Sydney Motorsport Park on a 1:29.394s, with no one able to better his lap at the chequered flag.

Richards, who this weekend shares the BMW M6 GT3 with Ricky Capo, went just under three tenths quicker than the previous benchmark held by the Walkinshaw GT3 Porsche of Liam Talbot.

Talbot finished up second fastest after out-pacing Cameron McConville (Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3) earlier on.

McConville’s 1:29.874s from the opening half of the session proved good enough for third after he handed over to co-driver Adrian Deitz for the remainder of proceedings.

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Peter Hackett in the Eggleston Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the YNA Autosport McLaren 650s GT3 of Fraser Ross completed the top five.

Next best was championship leader Tony Bates in the first of the Audi R8 LMS GT3s ahead of Yasser Shahin (Mercedes-AMG GT3) and Nick Kelly (Audi R8 Ultra), who proved the best of the Trophy class cars.

Geoff Emery (Audi R8 LMS GT3) and Mark Griffith (Mercedes-AMG GT3) rounded out the top 10.

The Miedecke Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3 suffered a coil pack failure which kept it out of action and presents the team with a race against time to have the car ready for qualifying.

The KTM X-Bow of David Crampton and Trent Harrison was fastest in GT4, from Jeremy Gray in his Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT4.

Australian GT will return to the track this afternoon for a pair of qualifying sessions, the first of which kicks off at 1340 AEST.

Results: Practice

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver(s)	Car	Class	Fastest lap	Split
1	100	BMW Team SRM	S.Richards R.Capo	BMW M6 GT3	CH	1:29.3942
2	911	Walkinshaw GT3	Liam Talbot	Porsche 911 GT3 R	CH	1:29.6917	0:00.2975
3	6	Wall Racing	A.Deitz C.McConville	Lamborghini Huracan	CH	1:29.8741	0:00.4799
4	63	Eggleston Motorsport	Peter Hackett	Mercedes-AMG GT3	CH	1:30.0107	0:00.6165
5	59	Total Oil / Opti-Coat / Logite	Fraser Ross	McLaren 650S GT3	CH	1:30.0898	0:00.6956
6	24	KFC/Ctech Laser/Moveitnet/B&B	Tony Bates	Audi R8 LMS	CH	1:30.4751	0:01.0809
7	777	The Bend Motor Sport Park	Yasser Shahin	Mercedes-AMG GT3	CH	1:30.7207	0:01.3265
8	99	Industrie	Nick Kelly	Audi R8 LMS Ultra	TR	1:31.1144	0:01.7202
9	1	Valvoline	Geoff Emery	Audi R8 LMS	CH	1:31.1568	0:01.7626
10	19	Hogs Breath Cafe / Griffith Co	Mark Griffith	Mercedes Benz GT3	CH	1:32.2474	0:02.8532
11	23	Kentucky Fried Chicken	Matthew Stoupas	Audi R8 LMS Ultra	TR	1:32.4875	0:03.0933
12	96	Hobson Motorsport / Hi-Tech Oi	Brett Hobson	Nissan GTR Nismo GT3	CH	1:32.9482	0:03.5540
13	147	Superfluid	Dave Stevens	Ferrari 458 GT3	TR	1:33.0712	0:03.6770
14	991	Perfect Auto Body	Vincent Muriti	Audi R8 LMS Ultra	TR	1:33.1705	0:03.7763
15	25	BTE Bulk Transport Equipment /	Ryan How	Audi R8 LMS Ultra	TR	1:33.2567	0:03.8625
16	188	E.A.T. Furniture	Rio Nugara	Audi R8 LMS Ultra	TR	1:33.5336	0:04.1394
17	222	Scott Taylor Motorsport	Scott Taylor	Mercedes-AMG GT3	CH	1:34.4331	0:05.0389
18	49	M Motorpsort	J.McMillan D.Koutsoumidis	Lamborghini RE-X	CH	1:35.1558	0:05.7616
19	7	Local Legends Beef Jerky	Tony Quinn	Aston Martin Vantage	CH	1:36.2133	0:06.8191
20	29	Haemokinesis / Trofeo Estate /	Jim Manolios	Lamborghini Huracan	CH	1:37.9887	0:08.5945
21	50	Vantage Freight / M Motorsport	D.Crampton T.Harrison	Reiter KTM X-Bow	GT4	1:38.4718	0:09.0776
22	67	JMG / Bilstein	Jeremy Gray	Aston Martin Vantage	GT4	1:39.8201	0:10.4259
23	12	Aranik Racing	Johnny Nikolovski	Ferrari 458 Challenge	TR	1:41.3978	0:12.0036