Scott Pye was the first driver to fall victim to The Mountain in Practice 2 when he lost control of the #87 Triple Eight Race Engineering Chevrolet Camaro into The Cutting.
The team completed an overnight repair and had the car ready well before Practice 3, allowing for pit stop practice.
Practice 3 was a dramatic affair with both Matt Stone Racing machines crashing.
Cameron Crick put the #4 into the wall hard just before Forrest’s Elbow and Dylan O’Keeffe spun the #10 into the wall at Griffins Bend.
Both cars were repaired and made it out midway through Practice 4.
The final practice before Qualifying was incident-free until the final minutes when Cooper Murray tagged the wall in the #888 Triple Eight wildcard at The Dipper.
Murray made it out in time for Qualifying without any issues but failed to make the Top 10 Shootout.
Qualifying also featured two major crashes; Will Davison wrecked the #17 Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang and David Reynolds nose-dived the wall in his Team 18 #20 Chevrolet Camaro. Both crashes were at The Dipper.
Shattering end to @BoostAus Qualifying at Mount Panorama 😳#RepcoSC #Supercars #Bathurst1000 pic.twitter.com/oCXqAIS05E
— Supercars (@supercars) October 11, 2024
Incidents weren’t limited to Supercars with Mason Kelly, Cody Burcher, and Kai Allen crashing across Practice and Qualifying. Kelly and Allen crashed at Reid Park while Burcher went in at Sulman Park.
“It’s just the competition,” said Broc Feeney’s co-driver Jamie Whincup when asked about the volume of crashes.
“Just a combination of everyone having a big go. To get in the 10 is very, very difficult. Everyone is out there on the limit to get in the 10, that’s all it is.”
Matt Payne’s Grove Racing co-driver Garth Tander suggested some muscle memory might be in play.
“I think also a couple of [things]. Hard tyre, low downforce,” said Tander.
“Everyone has probably still got a lot of muscle memory from that hard tyre from the Gen2 car.
“Last year was an anomaly with the soft tyre. I think it’s a bit of that. Yeah, quali, pushing on, that’s the session to have a crack.”
While it was all smiles for Payne and Tander, there was still some consternation in the Triple Eight camp.
A lingering vibration has been bugging Feeney and Whincup throughout Friday.
It could be a case of simply tightening some nuts and bolts, as Whincup explained.
“We have to find it. It’s a long day. Six and a half hours with a vibration,” said the seven-time champion.
“I’ve got a few filings and stuff so I don’t want them falling out on Sunday. We’ll find what the issue is. It’s a low harmonic, so it must be bodywork. So we’ll tighten all that up.
“If it’s a high vibration, it’s generally engine. A real high vibration. But if it’s just low boom boom boom boom – that’s my best interpretation of a low harmonic – so it must be low harmonic.
“I learned that over 20 years.”
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