PETER PADDON has topped the opening day of practice for the 2022 Radical Cup Australia at the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit.
The 19-strong field took to the 4.46km circuit under cloudy skies for a pair of 20-minute sessions, with Paddon’s First Focus SR3 coming out on top with a 1m34.5709s flyer.
Paddon set his best lap in the first session, while second-placed Zig Fuhrmeister set his best time in the later afternoon run as the pair ended the day 1-2.
The latter was just 0.3 seconds behind Paddon’s best pointing to close competition at the front of the field this weekend.
Paddon will share his entry with long-time friend and noted racer, ex-Aussie Racing Car ace Peter Carr this weekend.
Carr drove the second practice session, finishing third fastest proving that the pair will be a formidable combination when they join forces for the 50-minute enduro on Sunday morning.
Teams with two drivers entered will share the running in the pair of 25-minute sprint races, with the nominated driver for each race to be decided tomorrow prior to Qualifying.
West Aussie’s Adam Lisle and Jordan Oon are the only other combination splitting the driving duties this weekend, and their weekend also started well.
The Arise Racing entry was third for the day – only 0.4s from the pace – thanks their practice one best. Peter Clare was fourth on today’s combined times, while Chris Perini finished fifth and was less than one second from the outright pace set by Paddon.
Elliott Schutte and Carmelo Bonaventura were next, Andrew Eldridge, Stephen Champion and Ash Samadi completing the top-10 in Friday’s combined times.
Nick Kelly was 11th, ahead of Brad Russell, Greg Kenny, Warwick Morris, Bill Medland, Andrew MacPherson, Sue Hughes, James Hernandez and Andrew Connor.
Saturday will see the category launch into qualifying at 9:30am in the morning, to be followed by the first of three races.
That will be contested over 25 minutes and start at 12:35pm AEDT – to be shown live on Stan Sport.