Terry Lawlor has overcome rapidly changing weather conditions to qualify his Group C Ford XD Falcon on pole position for the Heritage Revival races at this weekend’s Repco Bathurst 1000.
After posting the ninth and second-quickest times in the two practice sessions, Lawlor stamped his authority on qualifying in his ex-Bob Morris/Bill O’Brien machine.
“As the session started, it began to rain so I knew I needed to press on and put a lap together – fortunately it was good enough for pole,” Lawlor said.
“It’s been an interesting day, certainly challenging dealing with the changing track conditions.
Greg Keam qualified his Group A Mustang second-fastest.
“The tyres took a long time to come up to pressure in that session, so I’m pleased to qualify on the front row,” Keam said.
“The track became very greasy as the session progressed and Terry did a great job.
Nathan Gordon was best of the Group N cars, ending up third fastest overall in his HQ Holden Monaro and interestingly, there were four different groups of cars represented in the top four, with the Group S Porsche of Doug Barbour qualifying fourth.
“I felt like my Porsche was well-suited to those conditions – the track wasn’t completely wet, but there was enough moisture to slow down some of the more powerful cars and play to the strengths of my Porsche’s handling,” a delighted Barbour said.
“I’m thrilled with the result and thoroughly enjoying the weekend so far – it’s absolutely terrific.”
Earlier in the day, Mark LeVaillant topped the opening practice session – held on a completely wet track – in his Group C VH Commodore before the second session – held in the dry – was topped by Brian Henderson’s Nissan Bluebird. Unfortunately for Henderson, a differential failure in qualifying curtailed his run, relegating him to a lowly 38th on the grid and setting up the exciting prospect of a charge through the field tomorrow.
Race 1 for Heritage Revival will be held at 8:20am tomorrow, with Race 2 at 5:25pm.
