Waters Tops Final Bathurst Practice in STM Mercedes-AMG

Cam Waters set the pace in the sixth and final practice session for this weekend’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour aboard Scott Taylor Motorsport’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The Australian Supercars regular left it until the very end of the hour-long session to post his best time of 2:02.357, as the pace picked up considerably in the last on-track running ahead of qualifying for the Intercontinental GT Challenge season opener.

Broc Feeney had been the first driver to breach the 2:03 barrier just a little shy of halfway through the session aboard the solo HRT Ford Mustang GT3 with a 2:02.916 setting another sub-2:03 effort just moments later in a show of the car’s potential.

That stood as the best lap until factory Lamborghini star Marco Mapelli punched in a 2:02.576 with 18 minutes left on the clock aboard the Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 to knock Feeney off the top spot.

Third-generation driver Ryder Quinn came within 0.0005 seconds of Mapelli aboard the No. 101 Q/Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, but the Italian was finally beaten by Waters in the No. 222 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with less than two minutes to go.

Just before the checkered flag flew, Practice 5 pacesetter Christopher Haase put the Jamec Racing/MPC Audi second on a 2:02.519, which left Mapelli third and Quinn fourth ahead of Scott Andrews in the No. 44 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG.

Best of the Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVOs was the No. 46 car of Raffaele Marciello in sixth, ahead of the Team KRC example of Max Hesse.

Next up were the Grove Racing Mercedes-AMG, the Team BRM Audi of Alex Peroni and the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG of Luca Stolz, while Feeney’s earlier effort aboard the HRT Ford proved good enough for 11th.

With the top 17 in this session entered in Qualifying Part 2 (Q2) later on Saturday, two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs, the Tsunami RT and Absolute Racing car, and McLaren with the Optimum Motorsport 720S GT3 Evo also made the cut.

JMR did not manage to get either of its Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in the upper half, while both Arise Racing GT-run Ferrari 296 GT3s also missed the Q2 cut, including the No. 26 car that returned to the track after its earlier issues, as well as the solo Volante Rosso Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

Qualifying begins with Q1 at 1:05 p.m. local time (Friday 9:05 p.m. ET), followed by Q2 at 1:50 p.m. (Friday 9:50 p.m. ET).

RESULTS: Practice 6