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Grice, Moffat set the tone in Trans Am practice
All American Driveline’s Ben Grice and series leader James Moffat shared the spoils across the two National Trans Am Series practice sessions at Hi-Tec Oils Race Winton.
The Team Valvoline GRM driver was fast out of the gates in the opening practice session, after a winless outing at Phillip Island last time out, but ultimately fell second to Grice as a 1m 24.857 was enough to put the Victorian on top of the timesheets.
Moffat responded in the second session to post a weekend best 1m 24.650 to finish a mere tenth of a second ahead of TPS Group / Breeze Holiday Parks’ Brett Holdsworth – who takes the track for the first time in the series since injuring his shoulder in a cycling accident shortly after Phillip Island.
A trio of Garry Rogers Motorsport drivers then followed the leading pair, with AWC’s Lochie Dalton continuing his good run of form after a fourth-place finish in practice one, less than two-tenths away from his teammate in Moffat by the day’s end.
Owen Kelly and Edan Thornburrow finished in fourth and fifth respectively, and are showing true pace after an incident between the two at Phillip Island.
After leading the opening session, Grice was unable to better the time – falling back down into eighth place in the process.
After an impressive start to the day which saw Pioneer DJ’s Elliot Barbour in fourth, the Victorian was unable to replicate his efforts and fell right down to 11th in the second session – but an impressive outing nonetheless.
Phillip Island round winner, Nash Morris was unable to work his way towards the top end of the timesheets with a ninth-place finish in the first session, before only being able to improve to seventh in a second session which saw the Supercheap Auto entry recover after an off mid-way through a hot-lap.
It was a disappointing day for title contender Josh Webster, who brought out the red flag in the opening session after going off track and was unable to find his way above second last in the timings in the final session of the day.
On the other hand, it was an impressive return to the series for Dream Racing Australia’s Jackson Rice, who was able to crack into the top five in the opening session.
The National Trans Am Series will take the track for qualifying at 10:50am AEST on Saturday to decide the grid for the opening race of the weekend in the afternoon.
You can catch all the action live, on-demand, and ad-break free on Stan Sport.