The Shannons Trophy Series is finally underway with the six categories putting on a show during the opening day of the round.

Taking place at Sydney Motorsport Park, there was plenty to get excited about fans as fans were able to attend 

There will be free entry for fans all weekend, while those who can’t make it will be able to watch all of Sunday’s action live and free on 7plus from 9am – 5pm AEST.

The live stream will also be simulcast on Motorsport Australia’s YouTube channel, Blend Line TV and the Shannons Trophy Series Facebook page, allowing those around the world to tune in to the coverage.

Improved Production Nationals

Adam Poole entered the event as one of the favourites to win the Improved Production Nationals round, and the Holden Monaro driver certainly delivered when it came to today’s opening sessions.
 
Poole went fastest in both his practice sessions before setting the fastest time for the whole combined qualifying on his second last lap of the day.
 
So quick was Poole, the next highest ranked individual was Zak Hudson, who was almost one second slower in his qualifying session.
 
However, the Mazda RX-7 driver was quite safe when it came to qualifying with the third placed Scott Cook also nine tenths off – leaving the top two drivers in a league of their own.
 
The battle for third went right down to the wire though as four drivers were within half a tenth of each other – Ben Algie in fourth overall, while just one thousandth of a second was the difference between the fifth placed Kurt Macready and Lachlan McBrien in sixth.
 
With the category having completed two qualifying sessions today, a further two will be conducted tomorrow morning at 9:00am and 9:25am before the four heats are run tomorrow afternoon.

Mobil 1 Australian Production Cars and Monochrome GT4 Australia Series

The combined series had two sessions on track today, which included qualifying in the afternoon.
 
Securing pole position for tomorrow’s first one hour race was the Porsche Cayman of Shane Smollen and Justin Ruggier, with the duo going almost one second faster than Mark Griffith in the Mercedes AMG GT.
 
The two GT4 entries were fighting for top spot in the category’s earlier practice session with Griffth getting the edge by just seven hundredths of a second.
 
Starting tomorrow’s race on the second row behind Smollen/Ruggier and Griffith will be Renee Gracie, who jumped up five spots from practice, and veteran Tony Quinn, who snatched fourth spot from Andrew Miedecke on his 14th and final lap of qualifying.
 
Despite missing on a second row start by three hundredths of a second, Miedecke was the fastest APC driver – beating Grant Sherrin to fifth by just one and half tenths of a second.
 
The series will hold the first of four one-hour races at 1:30pm AEST tomorrow before its second race wraps up proceedings at 6:30pm.

Circuit Excels

The Circuit Excels were the first category to hold a race for the weekend and it was William Brittain who dominated from lights out to the chequered flag.
 
Having picked up pole position earlier in the day, Brittain was unchallenged during the eight-lap race, crossing the finish line six and half seconds faster than Hayden Auld.
 
Auld himself enjoyed a comfortable run to the finish line as he secured second place by eight seconds over Monique Sciberras.
 
While the top two spots were sewn up easily, the battle for the final spot in the top three went right down to the wire as Sciberras was just two and half seconds ahead of Caleb Hefren, who led Brian Sciberras over the line by four tenths.
 
In sixth and seventh, Summer Rintoule and Jeff Neve also produced an entertaining battle with the former winning by one tenth.
 
The Excels will have two races tomorrow – the first of which will be at 9:25am and the second at 4:30pm.

MARC Cars Australia

John Goodacre was the standout performer during the category’s three practice sessions today, going fastest overall in each.
 
While he was the fastest all day, Darren Currie certainly made it interesting as he reduced the gap in every session as the day wore on.
 
In practice one, Goodacre was two and half seconds faster than Currie, but by the final session, Currie had moved himself to within a second.
 
It was unchanged the top three for the whole day as Jacob Camilleri posted the third fastest time in all three occasions – coming closest to Currie in the first session where he fell short by just one tenth.
 
The series will hold qualifying at 10:50am AEST tomorrow before its first 40-minute race at 2:40pm.

TGRA Scholarship Series

There was very little in it when it came to the two TGRA Scholarship Series practice sessions today as Marcus La Delle and Lachlan Bloxsom exchanged the fastest times in  each session.
 
However, it was Bloxsom who took out the day’s top honours, his fastest time in practice two the fastest overall time for the day.
 
Bloxsom ended up pipping La Delle on his second lap during the session to go on top by just one hundredth of a second after the latter had gone fastest on the same lap.
 
Matthew Hillyer and Brock Stinson were the two next best after they produced top five times in each session – Hillyer going eight hundredths of a second faster in practice two.
 
The series will be back tomorrow morning with qualifying at 10:25am AEST before holding its first race of the weekend at 5:00pm.

Workhorse Radical Cup Australia

There were plenty of interesting talking points to come out of the season opening day of the Workhorse Radical Cup Australia.
 
Most notably, it was the fact that Peter Clare’s session one winning time remained unbeaten all day.
 
Clare and co-driver Josh Hunt were the fastest in the first two sessions, however it was Clare’s lap two time on Friday morning that was too good as Arise Racing’s Jordan Oon went second fastest.
 
Remarkably, it was Oon’s last lap in the last session that earned him second for the day, yet Oon, who is sharing driving duties with youngster Zara Horn this weekend, was three tenths off.
 
Going third fastest for the day a further tenth and a half slower was Elliott Schutte, who posted his best time in practice two.
 
Behind Schutte, Mark Rosser, Alex Gardner and Peter Paddon were all within or just over one tenth of a second off – highlighting the closeness of the competition.