Porsche Centre Melbourne Motorsport’s Harri Jones has sent a statement to the rest of the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia field, claiming both pole positions for the season’s opening two races at Albert Park.
Battle hardened after a season in the Porsche Supercup, Jones set a 1m 48.0678s to claim pole position in Equity One Pro for Race One, putting half a second on the field.
In SP Tools Pro-Am, the RAM Motorsport entry of Dean Cook drew first blood, qualifying in fourteenth outright on a 1m 49.9453s, the only Pro-Am competitor to dip below a 1m 50s.
The Race Two SP Tools Pro-Am pole went to the Agas National entry of Adrian Flack whose second quickest time was a 1m 50.6795s.
Reigning Albert Park Equity One Pro round winner and 2023 championship combatant Jackson Walls had a disastrous start to his 2024 campaign after crashing out early in the session.
The Objective Racing driver drifted wide at the high-speed turn eight sweeper, tagging the wall with the left rear corner and spinning back across the circuit, gently nosing into the wall on driver’s right.
Walls will start from the rear of the grid for the first two races of the season, having only set one lap before his accident.
The green flag came back out with fifteen minutes to go, though the red flags would fly once again around Albert Park before anyone had the chance to set another lap.
Reigning Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge champion Marco Giltrap spun his Team Porsche New Zealand entry into gravel trap at turn six as the cars were on their out lap heading around to the control line.
Giltrap, one of nine Michelin Juniors in the field this weekend, was recovered from the gravel and was able to rejoin the session, eventually qualifying in ninth position for Race One.
Amongst all the disruption, 2022 champion Harri Jones had risen to the top of the timesheets in the early running, setting a 1m 48.1284s to put almost three quarters of a second on the field.
The green flag waved once again with seven and a half minutes remaining in the session, giving the field three laps at most to set their best time.
Drivers struggled to match the times they set before the first red flag, as the Michelin tyres wouldn’t come up to temperature until the final flying laps.
Dean Cook almost brought out the red flags for a third time when he backed into the turn one runoff, though he was able to get out of the gravel before claiming the SP Tools Pro-Am Race One pole.
A pair of Michelin Juniors starred in the dying moments, as first Ryder Quinn jumped to the front row of the grid for Game Over, before being usurped by Marcos Flack who will start his first full season alongside Jones after setting a 1m 48.5695s.
Quinn will be joined by three-time Albert Park race winner Nick McBride on row two, with Bayley Hall rounding out the top five for Hall Finance & Insurance Solutions.
The opening race of the 2024 Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia season begins at 4:45pm AEDT.
