Van der Linde Storms to Bathurst Pole for BMW Team WRT

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

Sheldon van der Linde has claimed pole for Sunday’s Repco Bathurst 12 Hour, putting the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 on top for the Intercontinental GT Challenge season opener.

The South African driver took his Shell Helix-liveried BMW to a best lap of 2:01.981 in the Top 10 Shootout, completing only two flying laps, logging his best on the second tour of Mount Panorama, before pitting.

It ended up being 0.256 seconds quicker than the No. 888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Broc Feeney, who wound up second.

Van der Linde, who will share his BMW with Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weeerts, claimed his first Allan Simonsen Pole Award in only his second outing at Bathurst.

Maro Engel qualified third in the No. 130 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG, while Q1 pace-setter Matt Campbell was fourth in the No. 912 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Campbell stormed to the top of the time charts in the first segment, thanks to a 2:02.425 lap, although ended up being a half-second slower than van der Linde’s benchmark time.

Two-time and defending race winner Luca Stolz completed the top-five in the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG, ahead of the pair of Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs with Ricardo Feller and Kelvin van der Linde, respectively.

Maxime Martin put the No. 46 WRT BMW in eighth, ahead of the No. 911 Manthey EMA Type-991.2 Porsche of Alessio Picariello and the Jordan Love-driven No. 88 Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG, which completed the top-ten.

The Repco Bathurst 12 Hour gets underway Sunday at 5:45 a.m. local time (1:45 p.m. ET) with live coverage on the Bathurst 12 Hour and SRO GT World YouTube channels.

RESULTS: Top 10 Shootout

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John