Will Brown says Erebus Motorsport still needs some improvement on its wet set-up after finishing third-fastest in practice for the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight.

Brown went as quick as a 1:32.6640s in the final minutes of Practice 2 at Sydney Motorsport Park, where showers have been coming down on and off all day after plenty of rain during the week.

The latter of the day’s 40-minute hit-outs, however, was as close to dry as the Repco Supercars Championship field could hope for.

The rain had stopped in time for the commencement of the session and the majority of drivers on slick tyres throughout, despite the ongoing challenge of rivers of water across multiple corners.

“It was a good day, we probably struggled a little bit more in the wet, so probably need to work on that,” said Brown.

“But, our intermediate car and the dry was really good, so at the end there it was good to go P3.”

Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert set the pace with a 1:32.5356s in the #25 Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore in his first day of practice action since winning last year’s Repco Bathurst 1000.

Their triumph in the Great Race was built on development work during the run of four straight events at Sydney Motorsport Park, and Mostert did detect some improvement in dryer weather.

He was not getting carried away with topping the timesheet, however, given the changeable conditions at Eastern Creek.

“For sure, stuff we learnt at the end of last year, we’ll continue to build on, but it’s Practice 2 here with a not very dry track,” noted Mostert.

“We’ve been fast in the wet conditions before… I don’t know, the car felt okay when we had to get on the grippy stuff [slick tyres], but probably a little bit better for me than what it did feel at the end of last year here.

“But still too early to say; it could just be track conditions why the car feels so good.

“We had a test day at Winton the other week and thought it was probably one of the worst Winton test days we’ve had, so who knows if it’s just track conditions today?”

Cameron Waters had a similar mindset after finishing the day second-fastest on a 1:32.6060s.

Sydney has historically been unkind to Tickford Racing and the Ford squad used last year’s four events to expand its ‘toolbox’, with not a lot to show for its efforts in terms of headline results.

Asked if today’s sessions are relevant, Waters said, “I hope a little bit.

“We tried a few things between Practice 1 and 2; I think we were overall a little bit more competitive in Practice 2.

“But, the track was so mixed, it was hard to put a lap together, and the car was reacting a lot different in the dry stuff to the wet stuff.

“So, it’s nice being at the pointy end of the field but I don’t think everyone’s had a proper crack at it yet, either.”

Qualifying for Race 1 starts tomorrow at 14:45 local time/AEDT, with a Top 10 Shootout later in the afternoon to finalise the grid for the 77-lapper which will be held under lights.