Love grazes wall on way to topping Dunlop Series practice

IT wasn’t hard to see how hard Aaron Love was pushing in the opening day’s Dunlop Series practice sessions at the Bathurst 1000.

The Blanchard Racing Team driver topped a four-driver shootout at the end of Thursday’s two practice outings, heading Zane Morse, Ryan Wood and points leader Zak Best.

However, Love survived a scare after clipping the Sulman Park wall prior to the halfway point of the latter 40-minute session.

Incredibly, it was just his Mustang’s right-rear wheel that bore the brunt of the impact – replays suggested the right-rear guard didn’t even make contact with the concrete – and he continued on in the remainder of the session.

Super3 runner Ryan Gilroy wasn’t so lucky.

The AIM Motorsport driver had topped the third-tier runners in the morning session, but slammed his Nissan Altima into the wall at Sulman Park with 12 minutes remaining in the session.

Gilroy was able to exit the car under his own steam, reportedly sore but otherwise uninjured.

It was one of two red flag-inducing crashes across the day’s second-tier running.

Super2 rookie James Masterton brought the opening session to a halt after crashing into the tyres on the exit of Forrest’s Elbow.

The #219 Ford was repaired in time to start the second session, aided by spare panels borrowed from other Mustang teams, but only completed a pair of slow laps.

Love’s second-session time proved the fastest of the day among the Super2 field, half a tenth faster than the time set by Best to top the morning 40-minute outing.

Cameron McLeod set the fastest time of the day for the Super3 runners, his 2m07.5212s lap over a second quicker than Gilroy’s morning mark.

Another driver that was out of luck was Jett Johnson.

The third-generation racer had a heart-stopping moment when a tailshaft centre bearing failed across the top of the Mountain.

“(It) nearly killed me at the Metal Grate,” he told FOX SPORTS, before adding that he otherwise enjoyed his first day in a Supercar at Mount Panorama.

 “It’s really special, but really scary as well – I’m puckered-up the entire lap!”

The Dunlop Series fleet are next on track on Saturday morning for qualifying ahead of the opening race of the weekend.

RESULTS: Practice 1, Bathurst Dunlop Series

RESULTS: Practice 2, Bathurst Dunlop Series

V8 Sleuth’s ongoing coverage of the Dunlop Series for Super2 and Super3 is proudly presented by Biante – Fuel your passion with winning model cars. Visit Biante here to check out their range of model cars in a range of scales from 1:64 to 1:10.