Garth Tander and Yasser Shahin led Friday’s practice running of Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS at the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour.
Tander picked up the quickest time of the day in the #777 The Bend Motorsport Park Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo he shares with Shahin.
The car’s benchmark time, a 2:04.948s, was set in Practice 1 as Tander demonstrated strong early pace around Mount Panorama in perfect conditions.
Practice 2 was disrupted by a late red flag, voiding any chance of drivers having a shot at a last-minute flying lap and putting the focus on the morning session as far as lap times go.
While Tander/Shahin were 0.8s clear at the top, the Nissan GTR NISMO GT3 of Brett Hobson and the Grove Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R battled over second position.
Stephen Grove was consecutively the first man in the 2:07s, 2:06s, and 2:05s, showing his Bathurst experience early in the weekend before finally setting a 2:05.807s to secure second position.
Hobson held onto third as the best of the Trophy class runners, ahead of fourth-placed Shane van Gisbergen/Prince Jefri Ibrahim in the Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.
Rounding out the top five in Practice 1 was the Tony Bates/Chaz Mostert Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo, 3.4s off the pace.
Lamborghini proved fastest in an interrupted Practice 2 courtesy of Adrian Deitz and David Wall, who held sway when the session was neutralised.
An incident in the closing minutes for the Audi R8 LMS Ultra of Brad Schumacher on Conrod Straight saw race control ultimately call the session.
Deitz’s Practice 2 effort proved 1.5s quicker than the next best car in that session, with Shahin and Tander’s Audi in second position.
The Hobson Nissan was classified third overall and again the best of the Trophy class competitors.
Ultimately no one was able to set a representative lap as a result of the interruption, with the Practice 2 times falling two seconds short of the best in Practice 1.
Qualifying for GT World Challenge Australia takes place on Saturday at 09:05 local time ahead of Race 1 that will be broadcast live and free around the world.
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