Golding tops Darwin S5000 practice

James Golding has set the pace in both practice sessions for the fifth and final round of the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway.

The Garry Rogers Motorsport driver, who is still a mathematical chance of winning the Gold Star, set a 1:03.6466s in the morning session, before going as quick as a 1:04.0553s in the hotter, afternoon hit-out.

Kaleb Ngatoa was second on combined times courtesy of his 1:04.0762s in Practice 1, although his second session came to a premature end.

The New Zealander became stranded in the infield when he fired off at Turn 5, with replays suggesting he suffered broken suspension componentry by hitting a kerb in the flip-flop which precedes that right-hander.

Nathan Herne (GRM), Cooper Webster (Versa Motorsport), and championship leader Joey Mawson (BRM) rounded out the top five, all courtesy of their opening practice times.

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The latter was 0.5517s off the pace in that session, and seventh in Practice 2 at 0.4311s away from Golding’s benchmark then.

Tim Macrow (Tim Macrow Racing), second in the title race at 55 points behind Mawson, was seventh-quickest all-told at 0.6361s in arrears thanks to his Practice 2 efforts.

Tomorrow sees Qualifying from 08:30 local time/09:00 AEST, then Race 1 at 11:00 local time/11:30 AEST, as part of the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.

Results: Practice Combined

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Sess.	Fastest lap	Split
1	31	Team Valvoline GRM	James Golding	P1	1:03.6466
2	15	Team BRM	Kaleb Ngatoa	P1	1:04.0762	0:00.4296
3	29	Team Valvoline GRM	Nathan Herne	P1	1:04.0869	0:00.4403
4	37	Versa Motorsport	Cooper Webster	P1	1:04.1704	0:00.5238
5	1	ALABAR/Form700 Team BRM	Joey Mawson	P1	1:04.1983	0:00.5517
6	18	GRM EFS 4×4 Accessories	Aaron Cameron	P1	1:04.2070	0:00.5604
7	23	UCS Group Racing TMR	Tim Macrow	P2	1:04.2827	0:00.6361
8	48	Nippy’s	Blake Purdie	P2	1:04.2944	0:00.6478
9	49	Versa Motorsport	Jordan Boys	P1	1:04.8090	0:01.1624
10	24	Versa Motorsport	John Martin	P1	1:04.8383	0:01.1917
11	22	Amadio Motorsport GRM	Sebastien Amadio	P2	1:05.3741	0:01.7275
12	3	ALABAR/Form700 Team BRM	Tim Berryman	P2	1:06.6917	0:03.0451