TOM BEWLEY has charged to pole position in the second round of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia series under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The Team Porsche NZ / Earl Bamber Motorsport driver’s 1m29.5256s was enough to edge out Lockie Bloxsom for the top spot on the grid, by a tiny 0.0077s, to score his first career pole.
Bewley sits second in the championship following a strong weekend in Round 1 at Phillip Island and will start eight places higher than the series leader Willie Exton in race one on Saturday.
Held in cool and incredibly quick conditions under Sydney Motorsport Park’s stunning lights, Bewley’s lap stands as the Sprint Challenge qualifying record at the Western Sydney circuit, 0.4s quicker than Oscar Targett’s benchmark set in the 2024 season finale’.
Qualifying times ended up being decided by the first of two planned runs from the entire field after the session was red-flagged with five minutes to go following an off from James Lodge – who still ended the session third overall.
Lodge had a left rear wheel issue aboard his #39 entry however will remain third on the grid for race one tomorrow.
The recovery ensured that the session failed to restart, locking in the grid on the basis of their first flying laps recorded earlier in the session.
That ensured Tyler Greenbury was fourth while Jake Santalucia, a winner at Phillip Island, was fifth for Sonic.
Ramu Farrell topped the Pro-Am runners in sixth outright and ended the session less than 0.5 seconds from pole position, while Ryan Casha split Farrell and his nearest rival, Jacque Jarjo, by qualifying seventh.
Round 1 winner Willie Exton ended the session ninth with no chance to improve on his second run, while TekworkX Teammate Jackson Rooney completed the top 10. Just 0.8 seconds split the top nine runners in the session with the top six covered by less than 0.5s.
Andrew Georgiadis was third in Pro-Am and 12th outright, while Daniel Quimby grabbed the Class B pole ahead of Stephen Moylan and David Valeo.
Two races will be held on Saturday at Sydney Motorsport Park, the first at 12:50pm AEST and the second at 17:55pm local time – under lights.
Both races will be broadcast on 7plus while the second race will also be shown live on 7mate tomorrow evening at the Shannons SpeedSeries Sydney GT Festival event.
