Local driver Nick Percat has secured pole position for the opening round of the 2013 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia season, while returnee Damien Flack posted the fastest lap of the Elite Class racers.

Percat, a debutant in the Porsche one-make championship, finished today’s qualifying session with a time of 1:22.6031, two-tenths faster than second-placed reigning champion Craig Baird.

Warren Luff and Steven Richards will start the opening race of the season from the second row of the grid in third and fourth position from Shae Davies, Karl Reindler, Steven Johnson and Matt Kingsley in eighth.

Percat’s pole position lap was a new qualifying lap record for the category, improving on the previous record set by now-V8 Supercars driver Alex Davison in 2012.

“It’s a dream start for us; a local driver with an Adelaide-based team putting the Porsche on pole position. We knew that we’d have good pace later in the season but I definitely didn’t expect to roll out the car and be mixing it with Baird for pole on debut in Adelaide,” said Percat.

“To put this car on pole position against these guys was the most rewarding pole position in my career, mainly because you have to push the car so hard to get there. It’s been a really good day.”

Percat was also pleased to have provided some thrills for the local supporters.

“We’ve got a few local racers here this weekend; myself along with Scott Pye and Tim Slade in V8 Supercars. For it to be Day 1 and have a South Australian on pole position, I think that’s something to be happy about.”

Damien Flack was the quickest Elite Class driver for the qualifying session with the ninth fastest time from James Koundouris, Tony Bates, Duvashen Padayachee, Shane Smollen, Max Twigg and Marc Cini in 15th.

“The Clipsal 500 and Gold Coast circuits are my nemesis tracks so I didn’t expect to go that well to be honest. I just wanted to cruise along this weekend to make sure that we were fine for the Australian Grand Prix in two weeks,” said Flack.

“We seem to have reasonable pace in qualifying so I’m looking forward to seeing how we go in tomorrow’s race.”

Stephen Grove finished the qualifying session in 16th position ahead of James Bergmuller, Michael Loccisano, Tony Walls, Renee Gracie and Michael Patrizi.

The first Porsche Carrera Cup Australia race of the season will be held tomorrow at 2:30pm, which will be televised live on Seven.

Race schedule
Friday March 01, 2013
2:30pm Race 1 12 laps
Saturday March 02, 2013
9:50am Race 2 12 laps
Sunday March 03, 2013
1:10pm Race 3 12 laps

Broadcast schedule
Race 1 (live)
Date: Friday March 01, 2013
Time: 2:00pm (Melb/Syd), 2:30pm (Adel), 3:00pm (Bris), 12:00pm (Per)
Channel: Seven
Race 2 (as live)
Date: Saturday March 02, 2013
Time: 12:55pm (Melb/Syd), 1:25pm (Adel), 1:55pm (Bris), 10:55pm (Per)
Channel: Seven
Race 3 (as live)
Date: Sunday March 03, 2013
Time: 12:40pm (Melb/Syd), 1:10pm (Adel), 1:40pm (Bris), 10:40pm (Per)
Channel: Seven