Porsche Carrera Cup Australia kicked off its 2015 season in the searing Adelaide heat today featuring an impressive line-up of professional and semi-professional racers, with Nick Foster and Shane Smollen setting the pace in Thursday practice.
Foster’s Thursday practice performance at the championship’s ninth Clipsal 500 visit comes after his round victory at last season’s season finale in Surfers Paradise. While Foster is pleased with his initial pace he hopes to continue this momentum over the entire weekend.
“It’s a great start to the weekend. It’s been a long break since October and I haven’t done any driving since then,” said Foster.
“It’s important to start the season on a good note; we did that last year but we’re more refined this season – the car speed is there and I’m more comfortable as well. At the moment it’s going to plan but it’s a long weekend ahead of us.”
Carrera Cup champion Steven Richards placed the second fastest time from returnee David Russell and young gun Matt Campbell, making his championship debut.
Nick McBride was the fifth quickest driver from Craig Baird, Cam McConville, Michael Almond, Australian GT champion Richard Muscat, Duvashen Padayachee and Australian Formula 3 champion Simon Hodge in 11th, with Spike Goddard and Fraser Ross further down the order.
Shane Smollen was the best of the TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge runners following an off-season team change to McElrea Racing.
“I had a small and personalised team with great relationships last year and I think we did well, but there’s no mistaking that having a deeper set of resources and lots of good benchmarking does help so I’m really looking forward to that over this year,” said Smollen, who enjoyed having 2014 championship runner-up Warren Luff on his radio while on track.
“I felt relaxed today as I had good people in my corner and Luff on the radio, which encourages you that little bit more, but you can’t get away with anything either. There’s a lot of time to gain so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Tony Bates was the second quickest Carrera Challenge driver from Roger Lago, with Adrian Mastronardo an impressive fourth fastest in the class.
Marc Cini posted the fifth quickest Carrera Challenge time from James Bergmuller, Ash Samadi, reigning class champion Steven Grove and Scott Taylor.
Porsche Carrera Cup Australia will hold its qualifying and opening race tomorrow, with Race 2 and Race 3 to be held on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Race Schedule
Friday February 27, 2015
8:30am-8:50am – Qualifying (20 minutes)
2:55pm-3:15pm – Race 1
Saturday February 28, 2015
9:40am-10:00am – Race 2
Sunday March 1, 2015
12:50pm-1:10pm – Race 3
Broadcast Schedule
Ten (Channel 10)
Friday February 27, 2015
Race 1 – 3:00pm local time (3:30pm AEST)
Saturday February 28, 2015
Race 2 – 11:40am local time (12:10pm AEST)
Sunday March 01, 2015
Race 3 – 1:00pm local time (1:30pm AEST)
Fox Sports 5 (Channel 506) Every session live!
Friday February 27, 2015
Qualifying – 8:30am local time (9:00am AEST)
Race 1 – 2:55pm local time (3:25pm AEST)
Saturday February 28, 2015
Race 2 – 9:40am local time (10:10am AEST)
Sunday March 01, 2015
Race 3 – 12:50pm local time (1:20pm AEST)
Thursday combined Practice times
1 Nick Foster (Professional) – 1:21.9992*
2 Steven Richards (Professional) – 1:22.3868 (-0:00.3876)
3 David Russell (Professional) – 1:22.3995 (-0:00.4003)
4 Matt Campbell (Professional) – 1:22.5557 (-0:00.5565)
5 Nick McBride (Professional) – 1:22.6304 (-0:00.6312)
6 Craig Baird (Professional) – 1:22.7357 (-0:00.7365)
7 Cam McConville (Professional) – 1:22.8967 (-0:00.8975)
8 Michael Almond (Professional) – 1:23.1181 (-0:01.1189)
9 Richard Muscat (Professional) – 1:23.3379 (-0:01.3387)
10 Duvashen Padayachee (Professional) – 1:23.3753 (-0:01.3761)
11 Simon Hodge (Professional) – 1:23.7691 (-0:01.7699)
12 Shane Smollen (Carrera Challenge) – 1:23.8333 (-0:01.8341)
13 Tony Bates (Carrera Challenge) – 1:24.0046 (-0:02.0054)
14 Spike Goddard (Professional) – 1:24.1594 (-0:02.1602)
15 Roger Lago (Carrera Challenge) – 1:24.2439 (-0:02.2447)
16 Adrian Mastronardo (Carrera Challenge) – 1:24.8891 (-0:02.8899)
17 Marc Cini (Carrera Challenge) – 1:24.9112 (-0:02.9120)
18 James Bergmuller (Carrera Challenge) – 1:24.9347 (-0:02.9355)
19 Ash Samadi (Carrera Challenge) – 1:24.9565 (-0:02.9573)
20 Fraser Ross (Professional) – 1:24.9751 (-0:02.9759)
21 Stephen Grove (Carrera Challenge) – 1:25.8963 (-0:03.8971)
22 Scott Taylor (Carrera Challenge) – 1:28.1602 (-0:06.1610)