At the end of the session, Targett posted the session best of 2:24.4496 to head 2024 winners Simon Hodges, Jayden Ojeda and George Miedecke in their BMW M4 by 1.1 seconds.

In a session that was free of the red flags that plagued most of the preceding support categories, Class X Ultimate Performance cars filled the top four spots.

Michael and Hayden Auld with Tyler Everingham (BMW M4) were third ahead of Dean Campbell and Cameron Crick (BMW M2).

Late in the session Tyler Mecklem bumped the Hadrian Morrell Ford Mustang to fifth and first in Class A2 for Extreme Performance Naturally Aspirated, ahead of early class leaders Zak Best, Chris Delfsma and Bri Wilson in their Mustang.

The latter were seventh behind the Beric Lynton, Tim Leahey and Will Davison BMW M3 and ahead of the M3 of Amin Sharma, Grant Johnson and Jack Le Brocq. In ninth were Tom McLennan and David Russell after it had a left front puncture, while tenth were Brock Giblin and Brandon Madden in their Class X HSV GTS.

Leading Class A1 Extreme Performance Force Induction were Ryan Godfrey, Mike Sheargold and Alex Bryden (Mercedes AMG A45) in 18th. In Class B1 it was the BMW 135i of John Fitzgerald, Aaron Zerefos and Brent Edwards that was quickest and 29th.

The other classes were led by Brent Howard/Adam Gosling/Tim Wolf (B2 BMW M3), James Keene/Trevor Keene/Shane Fowler (Class C VW Golf R), Tyler Cheney/Alice Buckley/Hayden Hume (Class D Subaru BRZ) and Phil Alexander/Ronin Lindenmayer/Kim De Britt (Class E Mazda 3 SP25).

Only the BRZ of Daniel Flanagan/Dean Chapman/Chris Heiniger appeared to have dramas as it coasted down the escape road at Murrays Corner and remained there for most of the session.

A second practice session is scheduled for later today at 4:30pm AEST.