Mika Salo driving the #88 Maranello Motorsport Ferrari has claimed provisional pole position for the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour race with a blistering 2:03.9421 lap time posted late in Qualifying 1 this morning.
Salo’s time is a new lap record for a GT car and is the fastest lap ever by a closed roof racecar around Mount Panorama.
The one hour session was marred by two red flags which cost competitors more than 30 minutes of track time. A total of four cars were lost, perhaps for the rest of the weekend, but thankfully no driver suffered serious injury.
The first incident occurred early in the session, which began at 9am, when Jason Bright hit the wall on the exit of Reid Park. His #5 Audi R8 was left stricken in the middle of the track as cars came flying up the Mountain. Most cars got past without incident, however the Porsche 911s of Shane Smollen and Garth Walden came to blows trying to avoid Bright’s car.
Bright was reportedly unconscious for a short time but he was able to walk away from the car and was taken to Bathurst Hospital for observation.
It took 25 minutes to clear the track and when the green flag dropped it wasn’t long before cold tyres caught out Ben Schoots who nosed the #65 Daytona Coupe into the concrete barrier after the Cutting. Another red flag followed and gave race organisers cause to extend the session by a few minutes.
The closing 15 minutes of Qualifying 1 was very entertaining and raises hopes for some fast times in this afternoon’s Class A only session at 2:20pm.
Salo holds a gap of 0.8s back to a trio of cars who all ran in the 2:04s. In second place was Maro Engel in the 2013 race winning #1 Erebus Mercedes with a lap of 2:04.7643. The Nismo-backed #32 Nissan GTR continued its strong form on the Mountain with Rick Kelly recording a time of 2:04.8228.
Shane van Gisbergen lapped in 2:04.9150 to further prove his versatility with the fourth fastest time in the #37 McLaren 12C GT3. Three Audi R8s filled the next three positions with laps in the 2:05 bracket.
With one hand on the pole postion trophy named after Allan Simonsen, Mika Salo acknowledged the former Maranello Motorsport driver was inspiring the team. Speaking to Speedcafe.com Salo said: “We need to keep the trophy for Allan Simonsen. He would have been on the pole anyway, so it’s good to get it for him.”
Salo and the rest of the Class A runners have to get through two more qualifying sessions before pole position is confirmed but with warmer conditions early this afternoon Maranello Motorsport may have cause to be confident of securing P1 for tomorrow’s race.
A full list of times from Quali 1 can be seen on the Natsoft website.