Image Racing youngster Jordan Boys has finished fastest in the opening Dunlop Super2 Series session of the weekend as the practice record was slashed on the new Barbagallo surface.
Boys put in back-to-back personal best laps at the end of the 40-minute session, the latter of which moved the #49 VF Commodore ahead of the #54 Commodore of local Dean Fiore, who won the corresponding round of 2018.
The fastest lap ended up being 55.0242s for Boys, 0.0688s faster than Fiore’s best in the first of three Eggleston Motorsport entries, and almost 1.8s clear of the six-year-old practice record belonging to Steve Owen (56.8106s).
Boys is believed to have been on a set of tyres which, if not brand-new, was in quite favourable condition, although he was also prominent at the top end of the timing screen early in the session on an older set.
Kurt Kostecki, another West Australian native, was third fastest in the #55 VF Commodore.
The Triple Eight Race Engineering driver had the fastest first flyer, at which time he was already almost seven tenths of a second below the old practice record.
Ash Walsh had a very early off but ended up fourth in the #35 Matt Stone Racing VF Commodore, ahead of the first of the Fords in the #5 Tickford FGX Falcon of Thomas Randle.
Adam Marjoram (#15 Image Racing VF Commodore) vied with Kurt Kostecki for the fastest lap for the first half of the session before being shuffled back to sixth, one position in front of series leader Bryce Fullwood in the #16 MW Motorsport Altima.
Rounding out the top 10 were Brenton Grove (#10 Triple Eight Race Engineering VF Commodore), rookie Dylan O’Keeffe (#44 Garry Rogers Motorsport VF Commodore), and Brodie Kostecki (#57 Kostecki Brothers Racing VF Commodore).
While the new track surface and reprofiled Turn 3 kerb led to big gains in lap times, there were also a number of moments where drivers lost rear grip mid-corner and ran off, including a couple for Jack Smith (#21 Brad Jones Racing VF Commodore), who finished 13th.
Rookie Joel Heinrich (#47 Matt Stone Racing FGX Falcon) rounded out the 19-car field at a time 1.2979s off the pace.
Practice 2 in Round 2 is coming up today at 1455 local time/1655 AEST.
Results: Practice 1
| Pos | Num | Team/Sponsor | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Split |
| 1 | 49 | Image Racing | Jordan Boys | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.0242 | |
| 2 | 54 | Eggleston Motorsport | Dean Fiore | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.0930 | 0:00.0688 |
| 3 | 55 | Arcoweld Racing | Kurt Kostecki | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.4238 | 0:00.3996 |
| 4 | 35 | Matt Stone Racing | Ashley Walsh | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.5322 | 0:00.5080 |
| 5 | 5 | Skye Sands | Thomas Randle | Ford Falcon FG/X | 0:55.5508 | 0:00.5266 |
| 6 | 15 | Image Racing | Adam Marjoram | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.5548 | 0:00.5306 |
| 7 | 16 | Middy’s Electrical / MWM | Bryce Fullwood | Nissan Altima | 0:55.5980 | 0:00.5738 |
| 8 | 10 | Grove Hire Racing | Brenton Grove | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.6167 | 0:00.5925 |
| 9 | 44 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Dylan O’Keeffe | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.6291 | 0:00.6049 |
| 10 | 57 | Team Arcoweld Racing | Brodie Kostecki | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.7662 | 0:00.7420 |
| 11 | 27 | Lowes Petoleum / MWM | Tyler Everingham | Nissan Altima | 0:55.7976 | 0:00.7734 |
| 12 | 38 | Eggleston Motorsport | William Brown | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.8155 | 0:00.7913 |
| 13 | 21 | SCT Logistics | Jack Smith | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.8382 | 0:00.8140 |
| 14 | 28 | BGD Architects / MWM | Zane Goddard | Nissan Altima | 0:55.8595 | 0:00.8353 |
| 15 | 56 | Team Arcoweld Racing | Jake Kostecki | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.9728 | 0:00.9486 |
| 16 | 88 | Eggleston Motorsport | Justin Ruggier | Holden Commodore VF | 0:56.0168 | 0:00.9926 |
| 17 | 99 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Mason Barbera | Holden Commodore VF | 0:56.0270 | 0:01.0028 |
| 18 | 18 | Auto One Albury | Matthew Chahda | Ford Falcon FG/X | 0:56.1516 | 0:01.1274 |
| 19 | 47 | Osborn’s Transport | Joel Heinrich | Ford Falcon FG/X | 0:56.3221 | 0:01.2979 |
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