Brown fastest in final practice as SVG struggles

Will Brown has set the fastest lap in Practice 3 at the Vailo Adelaide 500 while Shane van Gisbergen ended up 17th after a messy session.

Repco Supercars Championship leader Brodie Kostecki may have earned provisional pole position on the evening prior but it was his Erebus Motorsport team-mate Brown who set an even faster lap in the final practice session of the weekend, a 1:19.0313s.

Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters was 0.1131s slower in second position, while Kostecki ended up 16th having reportedly concentrated on race pace and Triple Eight Race Engineering’s van Gisbergen was classified 17th after two offs – one of which led to a red flag – and a late kerb hop.

Once again, the weather at the Adelaide Parklands Circuit was overcast but dry.

Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro) set a 1:20.1264s to be fastest after the first flyers before Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) clocked a 1:19.7453s next time through.

Van Gisbergen (#97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro) had already run long at Wakefield Street (Turn 4) on his first flyer when he did so again a couple of laps later, triggering a red flag when he was unable to select reverse while trying make a three-point turn.

Brown (#9 Coca-Cola Camaro) had just taken over top spot with a 1:19.6755s and the field was let loose again after a stoppage of less than three minutes.

Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Mustang) was next to move the marker, to a 1:19.6467s, before Brown hit back with a 1:19.6445s and then Randle did likewise with a 1:19.5706s.

Van Gisbergen was on a quick lap and set to go top when he ran wide at Turn 14, and it was instead Mostert who could come through and shift the benchmark to a 1:19.5364s with just over half the session remaining.

With just over five minutes to go, Waters (#43 Monster Energy Mustang) laid down a 1:19.144s to go top and then Brown moved to second on a 1:19.1806s.

Van Gisbergen was dispatched with greens for his final run but picked up a kerb hop in a wild ride over Senna Chicane in the final minute of the session and would pit just before the chequered flag came out.

On his final lap, Brown, threading his way through traffic, strung together a 1:19.0313s to usurp Waters by a tenth of a second and also better team-mate Kostecki’s provisional pole time.

The top 10 in the end was Brown, Waters, Randle, David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang), Mostert, Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang), Heimgartner, Scott Pye (#20 Toyota Forklifts Camaro), Todd Hazelwood (#3 Redarc Mustang), and Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Mustang).

Kostecki was 16th on a 1:20.0252s and van Gisbergen 17th on a 1:20.1928s, with Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro) 20th on a 1:20.3308s.

The Top 10 Shootout starts at 12:05 local time/12:35 AEDT.

Results: Practice 3