UTE: Eastern Creek Friday practice report

Morgan Viper, Bowe Mustang Fastest At The Creek

SYDNEY'S Geoff Morgan, driving a Chrysler Viper, smashed the lap record for the Nations Cup category at Eastern Creek International Raceway when he topped official practice today for this weekend's PROCAR Champ Series meeting.

Morgan, a former Australian Porsche champion, was rewarded for his switch to the American-built Viper with a lap time of 1 minute 37.03 seconds - and favouritism for qualifying tomorrow for round five of the Megamantis.com Australian Nations Cup Championship.

"It's only the first day, but I'm absolutely delighted to be fastest so far. This is the first time a Viper has been on provisional pole since the championship was launched last year and it's a tribute to our hard-working team who have developed this car so well," said Morgan, who beat off a field that included a Lamborghini, four Ferraris and six Porsches.

Lamborghini driver Paul Stokell, holder of the official race lap record of 1:37.47, also beat his own time in coming second today, ahead of Ferrari's Mark Noske.

In practice for round five of the Century Batteries Australian GT Production Car Championship, John Bowe was the class of the field in a Ford Mustang Cobra RA.

His time of 1:43.15 was 0.61 sec. faster than the second driver, Bob Pearson, in a Mazda RX-7. Championship leader Brett Peters was third in a Subaru, but almost two seconds off the pace.

"The Mustang certainly isn't as fast as my Falcon V8 Supercar, but when you consider it's a barely modified showroom model, it's pretty awesome. I love driving it and there's some real satisfaction in achieving that time against a range of widely varying models," Bowe said.

Tim Leahy topped the Sports Touring class in his works Volkswagen Beetle, Scott Loadsman (Commodore SS) was fastest in V8 Touring, Alan Holgersson (Camry) fastest in 6-Cylinder Touring and Luke Youlden (Holden Astra) the quickest in 4-Cylinder Touring.

Sydney's Gary MacDonald, in a Commodore ute, topped two sessions for the third round of the Poolrite V8 BRute Muster, ahead of championship leader Damien White, who drove a Falcon.

All cars will compete tomorrow in qualifying sessions which will determine starting order for 16 races on Sunday.

RESULTS (Official practice)

Megamantis Nations Cup
1. G. Morgan (Viper) 1:37.03
2. P. Stokell (Lamborghini) 1:37.20
3. M. Noske (Ferrari) 1:37.21
4. P. Fitzgerald (Porsche) 1:37.84
5. J. Richards (Porsche) 1:38.13
6. D. Russell (Viper) 1:38.63

Century Batteries GT Prod.
1. J. Bowe (Mustang) 1:43.15
2. B. Pearson (Mazda) 1:43.76
3. B. Peters (Subaru) 1:45.52

Sports: T. Leahy (VW)
V8: S. Loadsman (Comm.)
6-Cyl.: A. Holgersson (Camry)
4-Cyl.: L. Youlden (Astra)

Poolrite V8 BRute Muster
1. G. MacDonald (Comm.) 1:52.67
2. D. White (Falcon) 1:53.31
3. G. Young (Comm.) 1:53.66
4. G. Denyer (Falcon) 1:53.71
5. R. Wilson (Comm.) 1:53.88
6. D. Palmer (Comm.) 1:54.85

-Procar