RANDLE SET TO CRACK THE BEND LAP RECORD IN S5000

MEDIA RELEASE/S5000 Championship – Photo: supplied

Thomas Randle has laid down a fast S5000 benchmark time at The Bend Motorsport Park today, recording a time close to the lap record on his way to topping both sessions at South Australian circuit today.

The Supercars endurance driver clocked a time in Practice 2 of 1m41.240s, and will need to find half a second tomorrow to get defeat the time of John Magro’s Formula 3, which stands at 1m40.72s.

It was a strong day for the South Australian-based Team BRM squad, with its drivers Randle and Anton de Pasquale finishing first and second in the final session.

Garry Rogers Motorsport driver James Golding was second fastest in the first session, backing that up with fourth in the second 20 minute practice.

John Martin had a mixed day, losing time in the first session with some tyre issues, but bounced back in the second to be third, just under a second behind Randle.

PRACTICE 1

It took less than 20 minutes for Australia’s new-generation S5000 single-seaters to rattle the record book at Tailem Bend in South Australia.

Three young guns from Supercars battled for supremacy through opening practice at the second S5000 event of 2020, with Tom Randle eventually finishing on top and lapping the track in 1 Minute 41.6079 seconds.

His quickest time was less than a second away from the outright fastest time set John Magro in a Formula 3 car earlier in the year, with much more to come.

“There you go. I’m pretty happy with that. It’s pretty good,” says Randle as he jumps from his car.

He was followed by James Golding on 1:41.9391 and Anton de Pasquale on 1:42.0556, as the thundering 11-car field got down to business.

“I’m just trying to get into the swing of things again. I haven’t driven an open-wheeler for two years,” says Randle.

“We’re getting faster,” says Golding.

“Everyone will be getting quicker and quicker through the day.”
Pasquale says he is working up to speed in his debut in S5000.

“It was OK. It’s only practice 1,” he says.

“I’m still getting my head around it. But it’s always fun when you’re driving something quick.”

The other Supercars star in the field, Will Brown, is doing double duty in the finale of the carsales TCR Australia series but still managed sixth-quickest time.

“I haven’t driven one of these cars here before. Most of the other blokes had a test yesterday. But we’ll get there,” he says.

The next session will be held at 3:05pm local time this afternoon.

PRACTICE 2

Thomas Randle has his eye on the outright lap record at Tailem Bend as he continues his pacey start to S5000 racing in South Australia.

After topping the first single-seater practice he did it again on Friday afternoon to run in front of fellow Supercars young gun Anton de Pasquale and open-wheeler veteran John Martin.

Randle’s quickest lap of 1 minute 41.2460 was less than a second slower than the all-time record at the track and just over half a second ahead of de Pasquale’s best of 1:41.7867.

“It’s even better than the first session. The car feels good,” reports Randle.

“Every time I drive the car I’m getting closer and closer to the record. I’m settling in and I’m after the record.”

For de Pasquale, also making his S5000 debut, the challenge is pushing the car to the limit.

“You’ve got to hustle and work the bitch,” he says with a laugh.

“I’m trying to tune myself and also tune the car. It keeps getting better and better.”

But Martin admits he is struggling to match the leading pair.

“It’s alright. We’re getting there,” Martin says.

But Will Brown is still struggling and more than 1.4 seconds off the pace.

“I just cannot turn. I’m quick through the first sector but then Anton just rips time out of me,” Brown says.

“We’re ages away. It’s not good.”

All 10 cars in the S5000 field ran trouble-free again, although the gap between the fastest and slowest cars is more than seven seconds.

Result, Practice 2

Pos	Num	Team	Driver	Time	Diff
1	49	Penrite	Thomas Randle	1:41.2460
2	99	PAYCE	Anton de Pasquale (Vic)	1:41.7867	0:00.5407
3	24	AGI Sport	John Martin (Qld)	1:42.1603	0:00.9143
4	31	Gippsland Body Builders	James Golding	1:42.3072	0:01.0612
5	23	Equity One / Holinger / Boylan	Timothy Macrow (Vic)	1:42.4438	0:01.1978
6	34		Ricky Capo (Vic)	1:42.7258	0:01.4798
7	8	Astrontech	James Winslow (SA)	1:43.0315	0:01.7855
8	38	Eggleston Motorsport	Will Brown	1:43.2193	0:01.9733
9	11	ACM Finance / WM Waste / Apex	Michael Gibson (Vic)	1:45.5767	0:04.3307
10	89	Willmington Racing	Braydan Willmington NSW	1:48.6695	0:07.4235

 

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