James Golding tops final Bathurst practice session
BRT Ford impressive in final Top Ten Shootout rehearsal
Golding led four Chevrolets in final order
James Golding has landed the final blow heading into the Bathurst Top Ten Shootout, topping the sixth and final practice session of the Repco Bathurst 1000.
Golding, who is fighting for a Finals berth at Mount Panorama, set a late flyer to put almost three tenths of a second over a swarm of Chevrolets in his Blanchard Racing Team Ford.
Before the session got underway in earnest, there was a bizarre incident on Conrod Straight between Mark Winterbottom and James Courtney.
Winterbottom pulled out to overtake Chaz Mostert when he caught a yellow flag that was out for wildlife. As Winterbottom slammed on the brakes, Courtney was left with nowhere to go but straight into the back of the Monster Mustang.
The session was red flagged as a family of ducks were safely removed from the vicinity of Conrod Straight, using up eight of the 10-minutes of red flag stoppage time.
Practice 6 was not only a final chance for the Top Ten Shootout runners to get their eye in ahead of the iconic one lap runoff, but also a first chance for teams to rehearse pit stops ahead of the 1000km race.
It was also a final chance to iron out any major bugs, especially for the rebuilt cars of Ryan Wood/Jaxon Evans, who battled an electrical issue with a faulty rear locking sensor, and Rylan Gray/Tony D'Alberto, who had to fix a broken air jack before they could make any stops.
The Anton De Pasquale/Lee Holdsworth Camaro looked strong once again, Holdsworth going to the top early on a 2:06.1449s, which was improved by De Pasquale once he jumped in to a 2:06.0837s.
Kai Allen was within a tenth of the Team 18 Camaro in second, whilst Will Brown, Brodie Kostecki, and the repaired cars of David Reynolds and Cam Waters rounded out the top six through 40 minutes.
Brown's Triple Eight stablemate Jack Perkins was forced into the lane, reporting the engine on Jackson Walls' #11 Objective Ford had dropped to seven cylinders, however Walls would get some laps under his belt once the issue was rectified.
The 2024 champion went for a Shootout simulation with 15 minutes remaining on the clock, dancing across the top of the hill to improve to second on a 2:06.1013s, with Cooper Murray in behind.
The #99 TotalEnergies Camaro has been fast all weekend, and on a used tyre Shootout simulation set a 2:05.5247s, going more than half a second clear of De Pasquale and Brown.
James Golding, set to be the first car in the Shootout, moved to second inside the final 10 minutes on a 2:05.8828s, as Matt Stone Racing prepared provisional polesitter Zach Bates for his simulation.
With six minutes to go, all 10 Shootout contenders rolled out for their final simulations, with Brodie Kostecki jumping back in for the final minutes after Todd Hazelwood completed a final race run.
De Pasquale was the fastest of the first wave of Shootout simulations on a 2:05.2880s, just 0.03s quicker than Cooper Murray, and 0.07s up on Jayden Ojeda.
However, running slightly off sequence Golding was the last of the Shootout runners to put in a simulation lap, and flew to the top after the chequered flag on a 2:05.2093s.
Of the Shootout contenders, the final order in Practice 6 was Golding, De Pasquale, Murray, Ojeda, Bates, Jack Le Brocq, Brown, Matt Payne, Reynolds, and Kostecki.
Waters, Thomas Randle, and Kai Allen were all interlopers among the Shootout runners, finishing in sixth, 11th, and 12th respectively.
The stage is now set for the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 5:05pm AEDT.
