BATHURST 12 HOUR: PRACTICE WRAP

As colleague Geoffrey Harris rightly noted, there’s an air of anticipation shrouding Mount Panorama this weekend, with talk of official lap records being broken.

For the 2014 instalment of the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour organisers, have done away with the minimum lap-time rule, previously set at 2:06.

It was this rule that dismissed the late Allan Simonsen’s awesome 2013 qualifying effort of 2:05.5 as ineligible, but anyone who witnessed the Ferrari 458 GT3 hurtling around ‘our’ mountain is never going to forget it.

Once more, the GT3 cars took centre stage. With a generous qualifying tyre allocation augmenting the time gain from the new, smoother surface, the pit lane was buzzing: Can someone tackle the 6.2km of tortuous tarmac in less than two minutes?

The outright Class A and B contenders hit the circuit for the first time early Friday morning, with most of the top cars averaging 10-15 laps in the session.

Fastest – perhaps surprisingly -- was Dave Russell in a Lamborghini Gallardo GT3, a car which was deemed eligible to compete for the less extreme Class B. His time of 2:05.9 set pulses racing. The Queenslander will share the Lamborghini with Roger Lago and Peter Kox come raceday.

Russell headed the Number 1 Erebus Motorsport Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS GT3 of 2013 winner Bernd Schneider and new teammates Maro Engel and Nico Bastian by a substantial 1.2 seconds. In third was the Rick Kelly/Katsumasa Chiyo/Alex Buncombe/Wolfgang Reip Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

A morning session was also held for the more production-biased Classes C through F, with the non-production Class I also mixed in.

Fastest time went to the thumping Class D Daytona of Jamie Augustine/Ben Schoots and Targa regular Paul Freestone, at 2:17.5. Second through to fourth was taken by the mad rear-wheel drive V8-powered non-production MARC Focuses, the driving talent including TV personality Grant Denyer.

The 12 Hour cars were on-track once more in the late afternoon, sharing the circuit in a class-combined session.

Although this allows drivers to get a feel for the traffic levels come race day, the top-end pros used the extra time to sharpen set-up with an eye for qualifying on Saturday.

Engel created a new official lap record with a towering 2:04.5 best in the SLS GT3, followed by Will Davison in the sister car, on a 2:05.3 run. The fan favourite Ferrari 458 GT3 of Peter Edwards/John Bowe/Craig Lowndes and former F1 star Mika Salo rounded off the top three with a 2:06.4 time set by Salo.

Sadly, the Ferrari 458 GT3 of Tony D’Alberto/Dean Canto/Renato Loberto/Tony Defelice collided with another vehicle in the session and has been withdrawn from the event.

Focus now moves to Saturday’s two all-class qualifying sessions, with a third for Class A teams. With rubber down on the circuit increasing grip and expected dry conditions, the battle for pole position is sure to be compelling.