Champ Shepherd secures home pole position

Reigning Toyota 86 Champion Rowan Shepherd made the most of his home track knowledge to take a searing Castrol pole position today at the Mike Pero Motorsport Park.

With the first 18 cars covered by just over a second it was Justin Allen who was first to show his pace with a 1 minute and 40 second lap. As the first flying laps were completed he held first place ahead of Marco Giltrap and an impressive Rianna O’Meara Hunt for Heart of Racing.
 
Next time around it was Giltrap who moved the bar with a superb 1 minute 38.7 lap which stood as the best until Shepherd blitzed around a circuit he knows well with a 1 minute 38.4 lap that would remain unbeaten for the rest of the session.
 
“It’s nice to be on pole position especially as it seemed to be a little bit more difficult to get the times today than it was yesterday now we are all on new tyres,” said the champion afterwards. “Traffic wasn’t a problem and the track was relatively clean and that always helps with a lap around here.”
 
Giltrap’ s best was good enough for a front row starting position – the first time the youngster has been on the front row of the grid from a qualifying. Allen maintained his impressive pace in the early stages of the championship and held on for third place and a second row start, and completing an exciting two rows was round one winner Simon Evans. Ronan Murphy again showed his pace to lock out another top five starting position.
 
Further back, Matthew McCutcheon was once again at the sharp end and will join Murphy on the third row with sixth fastest time, while Zac Stichbury backed up his Friday testing pace with seventh. Brock Gilchrist did well to get his CareVets car into the top ten with eighth after some clutch issues during Friday’s test day.
 
O’Meara Hunt was the fastest of the three Heart of Racing drivers, taking ninth and beating team mate Hugo Allen by just four one hundredths of a second. Chelsea Herbert was just a couple of tenths behind.
 
Saturday afternoon’s race will be over eight laps of the Mike Pero Motorsport Park circuit.

Toyota 86 Championship – Round 2 – Mike Pero Motorsport Park – Qualifying