Payne leads Ford 1-2 in opening Bathurst practice

The 26 Great Race entries had 60 minutes of uninterrupted green flag running under sunny skies to open their campaigns.

Grove Racing man Payne recorded 2:07.2941s with just over two minutes left on the clock to knock Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters off the top by 0.0366s.

Waters had spent much of the session at the top of the order in a promising start for the Mustang team that received upgraded engines at the circuit this morning.

“It’s a great start to the weekend,” said Payne’s co-driver Garth Tander.

“It looked like the car rolled out pretty nice. He was complaining about quite a bit of high-speed understeer for the first half of the session.

“That’s how you really want to roll the car out when you get here for Bathurst at the start of the weekend because it’s a more comfortable balance trait to have in the car.

“We worked on that and then he did a really nice job with that lap right in the end there, his first run on a second set of tyres.”

Waters and Tickford were equally encouraged, especially given the Monster Mustang’s sluggish run at Mount Panorama on the hard tyre back in February.

“First session ran very smoothly, a lot smoother than the 500 round at the start of the year,” said Waters.

“Great start to the weekend. The car is pretty good. We’ve got a bit of work to do but can’t complain.”

Supercars Championship leader Will Brown ended up third fastest having been among those to vault up the order late on new tyres.

“We ran a set of tyres like I’m sure a fair few did just at the end there,” admitted Brown.

“I wasn’t as happy with the car at the start. I think it’s just hot out there this weekend and it seemed to be squirming around a lot, but it looked like everyone was.

“The green tyre, the car went well on that… but it seems pretty tight up the front, there’s not much between the top 10 so it’s going to be an interesting weekend, I’m sure.”

Matt Stone Racing’s Cam Hill was fourth having proven somewhat of a surprise packet, trading the fastest time with Waters 10 minutes from the end.

Waters’ Tickford teammate Thomas Randle was fifth despite losing almost 40 minutes after striking power steering trouble.

Andre Heimgartner’s Brad Jones Racing Camaro also required early attention to its power steering; the Kiwi ending up 13th fastest after a series of off-track excursions.

Power steering issues for car #8 early in P1.

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The Will Davison/Kai Allen Mustang too endured mechanical issues, ending up 25th after a stint in the Dick Johnson Racing garage with overheating trouble.

Sixth through 10th at the finish were James Golding, David Reynolds, Chaz Mostert, Richie Stanaway and Bryce Fullwood.

Mostert and Walkinshaw Andretti United teammate Ryan Wood endured separate runs down the Hell Corner escape road as they pushed the limits.

The former was ultimately one of the big late improvers, leaping from 20th to sixth before ending up eighth.

Several co-drivers turned laps during the session, including Triple Eight pair Scott Pye and Jamie Whincup.

The day’s second and final practice is scheduled for 4:55pm and is for co-drivers only.

Results: Repco Bathurst 1000, Practice 1