Barthurst practive

CAMERON McConville, driving Holden¹s fastest production V8 sedan, pipped the best from America and Japan in a closely-contested official practice session today for the V.I.P. Petfoods GTP 2-Hour Showroom Showdown at Mount Panorama, Bathurst.

McConville, sharing with car owner Peter Floyd, put his 400 horsepower Holden Commodore GTS around the 6.2 km circuit in 2 minutes 32.08 seconds, just five-hundredths faster than Ford Mustang Cobra rival John Bowe, who will co-drive in Saturday¹s race with New Zealander Chris Dunn.

Queenslanders Robert Rubis and Gary Deane, in a Subaru Impreza STi, were third fastest overall after topping the second of two half-hour sessions.

McConville¹s time was the fastest yet seen at Mount Panorama for a standard production Holden and the closeness of the competition promises an exciting qualifying session tomorrow.

³That was a good lap, for sure, but it will be interestng to see if we can be quicker in qualifying. The Commodore has plenty of power for climbing the mountain and the smooth new track surface has undoubtedly made a difference to the times,² McConville said.

<pre> RESULTS (practice):

1.  P. Floyd/C. McConville (Holden Commodore GTS)    2:32.08
2.  J. Bowe/C. Dunn (Ford Mustang Cobra RA)     2:32.13
3.  G. Deane/R. Rubis (Subaru Impreza STi)     2:32.44
4.  G. Alexander/J. Woodberry (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V)   2:33.12
5.  E. Aitken/J. Faulkner (Holden Commodore GTS)    2:33.33
6.  B. Peters/M. Algadri (Subaru Impreza STi)     2:33.67

Meguiar¹s Top Marques High Performance: P. Floyd/C. McConville Hippies Sports Touring: W. Russell/S. Cramp (BMW 323i) 2:42.79 Poolrite V8 Touring: S. Loadsman/I. Luff (Commodore SS) 2:37.91 Poolrite 6-Cylinder Touring: R. Chadwick/W. Luff (Mitsubishi Magna) 2:44.07 Poolrite 4-Cylinder Touring: D. Russell/N. Thomas (Proton Satria GTi) 2:49.98

BATHURST TIMETABLE: Friday - 9.30 am Qualifying (30 minutes). Saturday - 7.45 am Warm-up (20 minutes), 1.35 pm V.I.P. Petfoods GTP 2-Hour Showroom Showdown.

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