Chaz Moster rocketed to pole at the 2018 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour with the BMW driver the only one to enter into the 2:01s in the top 10 shootout…

Top 10 Shootout

CHAZ Mostert has taken the Allan Simonsen pole award trophy ahead of tomorrow’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour after setting a blistering lap in the Top 10 Shootout.

The BMW Team Schnitzer driver, who shares the #43 BMW M6 GT3 with co-drivers Augusto Farfus and Marco Wittmann, lapped the 6.2km Mount Panorama circuit in a 2:01.934, holding off the charging Audi of Kelvin van der Linde who was unable to better Mostert’s time.

“We were close last year in the Pro-Am entry but it’s pretty special to go to the pointy end and actually get the pole this time with Schnitzer Motorsport and the BMW Motorsport group,” said Mostert.

“For me it’s amazing, the boys gave enough trust in me to qualify the car and we made the car better and better over practice. It’s a lot of hard work to fly a car all the way from Germany to put it on the pole so it’s fantastic.

Van der Linde’s lap, which was only 0.235s slower than Mostert’s, was good enough to secure the South African Audi gun a front row start for tomorrow’s race in second, aboard the #22 Jamec Pem Racing Audi he shares with Garth Tander and Frederich Vervisch.

The sister #74 Audi of Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies and Markus Winkelhock will start from third on the grid, with Haase setting a 2:02.434 early on in the session after being the fifth car out on track.

Buik Motorsports will lineup fourth with their #777 Lamborghini Gallardo combination of Yasser Shahin, Luke Youlden and Tomas Enge after Youlden set the time which got them on the second row of the grid.

Fifth place is the #47 YNA Autosport McLaren 650s GT3 of Scott McLaughlin, who had a slight moment at The Chase on his lap costing him vital time, though he will still line up on the third row of the grid with co-drivers Fraser Ross, Andrew Watson and Alexander West.

Cameron Waters was the first car out in the session after being promoted into the top 10 after the #100 BMW Team SRM M6 GT3 had its lap taken away from it.

The young gun set a 2:03.418 to put the #55 Mercedes-AMG Team Strakka Racing car sixth ahead of tomorrow’s race, sharing the car with co-drivers Nick Leventis, David Fumanelli and Lewis Williamson.

Row four of the grid is occupied by the #37 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi of Robin Frijns – who set a 2:03.448 – and the #58 YNA Autosport of Shane van Gisbergen, Craig Lowndes and Cöme Ledogar in eighth.

The final two spots in the top ten are taken up by the #17 Bentley Team M-Sport Continental GT3 – with Steven Kane setting the lap time in that car – and the #12 Competition Motorsports Porsche, which was driven by Matt Campbell in tenth.

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Qualifying

JAMEC Pem Racing have secured their spot in the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour Top 10 Shootout after ending qualifying on top thanks to a rocket quick lap from the #22 Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Kelvin van der Linde.

The South African Audi gun lapped the circuit in a 2:02.345 to take the top spot in a thrilling final qualifying session, with only 0.6s covering first to tenth place.

Second quickest in the session was the #43 BMW Team Schnitzer M6 GT3 driven by Chaz Mostert, which jumped up the order in the dying stages of the session.

BMW Team SRM grabbed third spot and will be the third last car out in the Top 10 Shootout with Philipp Eng setting a 2:02.527, only 0.1s off the fastest time.

McLaren hold fourth spot courtesy of Scott McLaughlin’s time in the #47 YNA Autosport 650s GT3, while fifth place was taken out by the #12 Competition Motorsports Porsche of Matt Campbell.

The remaining positions in the Top 10 Shootout are occupied by; sixth – #58 YNA McLaren, seventh – #74 Jamec Pem Audi, eighth – #37 WRT Audi, ninth – #777 Buik Motorsports Lamborghini and tenth – #17 Bentley.

When the session got underway, Christopher Haase banged out an early quick lap in the #74 Jamec Pem Audi just as van der Linde dropped into the 2:02s for the first time in the session aboard the sister #22 Jamec Pem car.

Proceedings were then halted as the red flag was brought out only moments later when the #9 Hallmarc Audi of Lee Holdsworth crashed on the exit of Griffins Bend – Turn 2.

Holdsworth lost the back end of the car, which speared into the right-hand concrete wall, badly damaging the front end of the R8.

After a 10-minute stoppage to recover the car, the session resumed with 11-minutes on the clock with a ‘dash for the cash’ imminent.

Van der Linde improved on his time by less than a tenth of a second as the order behind him chopped and changed, but the Audi driver was not touched for the remainder of qualifying.

Just at the checkered flag, the #32 JBS Australia Lamborghini ground to a halt at the top of the Mountain.

“I think it was pretty tight there in the end, I tried pretty hard out there,” said Mostert.

“At least we got in the [top] ten, so I’m looking forward to having the track to myself this afternoon and being one of the last guys out.

“Its good to have Schnitzer here, its been 30-years so its awesome to put them up the pointy end.”

Words and photo from Bathurst 12 Hour PR