RYAN WOOD has continued his ongoing Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge fight for supremacy with Thomas Sargent, grabbing the TAG Heuer Pole Award today at The Bend Motorsport Park.
A late flyer was good enough to pop the Team Porsche NZ / Earl Bamber Motorsport driver to the top of the charts, bumping Sargent to second with a The Bend record 1m50.4916s flyer.
It’s his fourth consecutive pole position in Sprint Challenge this season.
Home town hero Sam Shahin grabbed the Morris Pro-Am pole award, while Brad Carr topped the competitive Class B fight.
Sargent’s pole position came by just 0.3 seconds, championship leader Sargent improving on his final flying lap though unable to better Wood’s time.
The pair will line up together on the front row for the third time this season in race one tomorrow.
Lachlan Bloxsom was third – making it three teams in the first three positions – with Tom McLennan fourth.
Sonic racer Courtney Prince and Aaron Shields make up the third row, with Harrison Goodman in seventh just behind.
Shahin, the Pro-Am frontrunner, was eighth and in front of Madeline Stewart and Jason Miller who completed the top-10.
Pro-Am contenders Brett Boulton and Andrew Goldie were next in the order in their pursuit of Shahin in the Sprint Challenge ‘race within a race’.
Brad Carr qualified 13th outright in his Class B-leading entry, topping Nathan Sticklen and Lachlan Harburg in the class running.
Saturday action commences with the first eight-lap race at 10:10am ACDT, followed by the 22-lap Jim Richards Endurance Trophy race at 12:45pm.
Both races will be broadcast live on 7plus on Saturday, with Sunday’s final race also live on the streaming application.
Ryan Wood, Pro Pole Position “I was pretty happy with that, it was back and forth between myself and Tom the whole session, but I had to jag one out at the end there. But moving forward we should be good in the races and hopefully take out a couple race wins this weekend. I literally did it with a lap to go, we’re just getting used the green tyre as we don’t run a lot of greens. With the rain forecast for tomorrow, hopefully we can carry on where we left in Sandown, I haven’t driven much in the wet, Sandown was my first time, so hopefully we can come away with the race win.”
Sam Shahin, Morris Pro-Am “It was an interesting qualifying session, the track felt a lot better than it did earlier today, the car felt good. But the times just weren’t there, I really felt like I was driving Miss Daisy out there and we had a bit of confusion (in the team) I was meant to come in and put another set of tyres, but we didn’t end up doing that. The Porsche on this track, as usual, was just amazing, The Bend is just built for these cars. This track is actually very good in the wet, we spent a lot of time and effort on the drainage in the design, its exceptionally good and a different circuit to drive in the rain.”
Brad Carr, Class B Pole “I think there was a bit more in it, but we just didn’t piece it all together, but still a really good lap time and I was happy with the time. I really am enjoying the Porsche, it’s a very different car to the production car and requires a different driving style. The production car moves around a lot more, but the Porsches have more grip and more aero, so you have to be more precise and trust the grip, that’s probably my bigest point of difference, just building that trust in the grip.”