Feeney heads Bathurst 12 Hour qualifying

BROC Feeney heads the Top 10 Shootout field after setting the fastest time in qualifying for the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour.

The Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG pilot bested a host of visiting GT stars, Feeney registering the first ‘one’ of the weekend with a 2m01.8911s that was over three tenths of a second clear of the rest of the field.

Last year’s winning car was second-best, but it wasn’t renowned GT hero Jules Gounon aboard Kenny Habul’s #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG.

SPOTTER GUIDE: Photos of every car in the 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour

Instead, the Andorran entrusted qualifying duties to teammate Luca Stolz, who narrowly headed the #32 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde and reigning polesitter Maro Engel in the #130 GruppeM Mercedes-AMG.

The threat of rain early in the session prompted most teams to put their best feet forward straight away.

Engel wasn’t among them, however, and languished outside the top 10 until finally bumping his way in with seven minutes to go.

Jordan Love put Triple Eight’s Pro-Am class #88 Mercedes-AMG fifth ahead of Matt Campbell, who took over the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche mid-session from teammate Ayhancan Güven.

The fastest of the Audis were next, Riccardo Feller seventh-fastest in the #2 car ahead of Kelvin van der Linde in the #22, the latter’s session ending early after clipping the wall on the run down to the Dipper.

The #46 BMW of Maxime Martin saved a set of fresh tyres on the way to ninth, while Alessio Picariello secured the final Shootout spot in the #911 Manthey EMA Porsche.

Maximilian Götz was unlucky 11^th, missing a Shootout berth by just 0.037s, while neither Lee Holdsworth nor Cam Waters were able to bump their way in with their final laps.

The qualifying session was split into the fastest and slowest 50% from practice.

Glen Wood was the improver from the opening part of the session, edging up to 14^th place in the #48 Mercedes-AMG, ahead of Luke Youlden who secured pole for the Silver class and contended for a Shootout spot until clipping the wall on the exit of the Cutting with a handful of minutes to go.

The opening half-hour session settled the grid order for the Invitational and GT4 classes.

Tim Slade took 20th on the grid and pole position for the Invitational class aboard the Martini-liveried #91 MARC GT that he’ll share with Keith Kassulke, Hadrian Morrall and Cameron McLeod.

With the class capped at a minimum lap time of 2m06s, Slade left his rivals with very little room to beat him with a 2m06.0789s.

Rylan Gray went too fast on his best effort with his sub-2m06s lap deleted, his next-best time leaving him second in class just 0.0394s shy in the #111 MARC GT.

In GT4, Adrian Christodoulou secured pole and 24th on the grid in the #19 Mercedes-AMG that he’ll share with Mark Griffith and Daniel Bilski, eight tenths faster than the #25 McLaren of Marcus Flack.

The two cars that were involved in crashes during Practice 6 – the #20 IRC GT and #50 KTM X-BOW – were unable to be repaired in time to take part in the qualifying session, with the KTM subsequently withdrawn from the event.

The two-part Top 10 Shootout will get underway at 4:05pm AEDT.

RESULTS: Qualifying, 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour (60min)