DESPITE battling limited laps and adverse weather, S5000 race winner James Golding was able to eclipse Mount Panorama’s existing lap record during a series of demonstration runs at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International at the weekend. 

Golding, driving a Team Valvoline GRM entry, was joined by Cooper Webster’s Versa Motorsport car in a series of demonstrations of the S5000 machinery in unrestricted form across the weekend.

Official event timing recorded Golding’s best lap at 1m59.2640s in his final run on Sunday morning, narrowly eclipsing the existing outright lap record held by German GT ace Christopher Mies (1m59.2910s) driving a de-restricted Audi GT3 car.

The lap was six-tenths of a second quicker than Golding’s existing S5000 lap record at Mount Panorama, set in late 2021 at a 1:59.8375.

Golding recorded his fastest lap on Sunday morning just prior to a significant rain event delayed proceedings and cancelled the scheduled TCR Australia race.

Light rain began falling as Golding crossed the line to record his record lap. A planned longer run later on Sunday was also cancelled due to time constraints, leaving no opportunity for further improvement that was almost certainly forthcoming.

Both team and driver confirmed that more lap time could be found given a longer run and more ideal track conditions, however were still overjoyed to record the quickest ever officially timed lap at Mount Panorama.

It adds Bathurst to a list of circuits including Symmons Plains, Sandown, Hidden Valley and the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit where S5000s have officially lapped quicker than any other car.

“It was a pretty special thing to do,” Golding said.

“I only just got it (the record) by a tenth, but we only had three flying laps so there’s definitely more time to come out of it.

“These are the fastest cars in Australia and we wanted to try and get the record at the best track in Australia, and it’s pretty cool to have been able to do that.

“The car was fantastic and an improvement from when we raced here in 2021; it felt great and was exciting to drive around here.”

The S5000 field will be back on track in two weeks’ time at the VALO Adelaide 500, on December 1-4.