Bates takes the fight to Eggleston in second practice

Zach Bates soared to the top of timesheets in the final Dunlop Series practice session in Perth, though Eggleston Motorsport weren’t far behind.

Bates set a 55.4149s to set the fastest time of the day ahead of Jordyn Sinni, who rounded out his impressive Friday by finishing second on a 55.4799s.

With track temperature up seven degrees from Practice One earlier today, times out of the gate weren’t as quick as the previous session.

Cameron McLeod set the quickest time on the initial runs with a 56.3140s, with Bates and Brad Vaughan both within a tenth of a second of the RM Racing Cars with PremiAir Racing Commodore.

McLeod’s session wouldn’t get any better, as the 2023 Mike Kable Young Gun Award winner would be forced into the pits with a leaking power steering system.

The Queenslander wasn’t able to complete a green tyre run as a result, plummeting to 20th in the final order.

The first qualifying simulations came with around fifteen minutes to go, as Lochie Dalton went to the top in his Tickford Mustang on a 55.8121s.

That was immediately followed by Image Racing’s Jarrod Hughes setting a nearly identical time to slot into second by just one hundredth of a second.

Mason Kelly, sporting a new livery this weekend with ACL Race Series Bearing, slotted into third on a 55.9630s before Walkinshaw Andretti United displayed the pace that allowed Ryan Wood to sweep both races in 2023.

Bates set his session-topping time with about ten minutes remaining in the session, with rookie teammate Campbell Logan slotting in behind on a 55.8043s.

The Eggleston cars were the next to set times, Cooper Murray going second on a 55.5966s before being usurped by Kai Allen on a 55.5311s.

Sinni then set his time to go second for the session, heading home Murray, Allen, and Cameron Crick as Eggleston continued their strong Friday form.

Aaron Cameron was the best of the Fords in sixth, ahead of Logan, Dalton, Vaughan, and Jarrod Hughes who rounded out the top 10.

Cody Burcher was the quickest Super3 competitor, finishing in 15th outright on a 56.1807s one position ahead of MW Motorsport teammate Thomas Maxwell.

The field will now be split in half for qualifying tomorrow morning, with the bottom 50 percent including the unfortunate McLeod, and Anderson Motorsport’s Max Vidau.

Boost Mobile Qualifying for the Dunlop Series begins on Saturday at 11:00am AWST/1:00pm AEST.