John Martin heads up Friday practice in Ipswich
John Martin has extended his good form in the TCR Australia series after going quickest in Friday’s practice day at Queensland Raceway.
Hot off the back of winning in the last round at The Bend, Martin put his Wall Racing Honda Civic TCR at the top of the timesheets at the end of Friday, just under a tenth clear of his rivals.
It was a big day for the TCR field, heading to Queensland for the first time as a mix of experienced Australian drivers and knowledgeable overseas entrants made up the top of the order.
Practice One
Dylan O’Keeffe was quickest early on in his Ashley Seward Motorsport Alfa Romeo with a lap of 1:14.772, over half a second clear of championship leader Will Brown’s HMO Customer Racing Hyundai.
O’Keeffe further lowered the bar to a 1:14.576 as Tony D’Alberto and John Martin put their Wall Racing Honda up into second and third, still unable to get below the 1:15 marker as the halfway point of the session was reached.
With just under ten minutes to run, former TCR International series champion Jean-Karl Vernay jumped up to second in the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi RS 3 LMS after posting a time of 1:14.551 but O’Keeffe continued to set the benchmark, edging closer to the 1:13’s with a 1:14.077 as clouds started to cover the circuit.
Though O’Keeffe remained at the top until the end, Brown put his Hyundai i30 N TCR back up to second ahead of Vernay at the flag. Aaron Cameron got up to fourth in the #2 MPC entry as James Moffat squeezed his Renault Megane RS TCR into the top five for Garry Rogers Motorsport.
Practice Two
With clouds covering the track, the field was quick to get out and hit the circuit to make the best of the cool conditions. Russell Ingall was the first driver into the 1:14’s for the session, going two tenths clear of Kelly Racing’s Alex Rullo with a 1:14.711 in the MPC Audi RS 3 LMS.
Championship leader Will Brown took the #30 Hyundai to the top of the order soon after but was pipped in the second half of the session, first by Dylan O’Keeffe and then John Martin. Martin’s lap of 1:13.920 put him as the first driver below a 1:14 for the day in the Wall Racing Honda, staying up the top until the flag fell at the end of the 30 minutes.
While Martin stayed fastest at the end of the session and O’Keeffe remained in second after going quickest earlier in the day, Jean-Karl Vernay squeezed into the top three with the quickest last sector on his final run, coming up just under two tenths short of the leading Alfa.
Brown had to settle for fourth while Jordan Cox in the Wall Racing Honda rounded out the top five. One second split the top ten as a majority of the pack got themselves into the 1:14’s.
Qualifying for tomorrow’s first race kicks off at 10:20am local time with Race One starting at 2:15pm.
