Davison fastest in wet Bathurst Warm Up

The Shell V-Power Racing Team’s Will Davison has set the pace in a wet Warm Up for the Repco Bathurst 1000 with his final lap of the session.

Davison denied James Golding morning bragging rights at Mount Panorama with a 2:22.4594s after the chequered flag, before Lee Holdsworth moved to second on a 2:23.1357s in the #10 Penrite Racing Mustang which he qualified on the front row.

PremiAir Racing’s Golding (#31 Subway ZB Commodore) ended up third, from Tickford Racing’s James Courtney (#5 Snowy River Caravans Mustang) and Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Garth Tander (#97 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore), with pole-sitter Cameron Waters eighth in Tickford’s #6 Monster Energy Mustang.

It was a relatively trouble-free session although Aaron Seton drove back into the garage early in the piece in the #34 Truck Assist ZB Commodore which was back on-track for the first time since his Practice 5 crash, but he and primary driver Jack Le Brocq both got subsequent mileage.

After his run-in with Macauley Jones (#96 Wet & Forget ZB Commodore) at The Esses in Qualifying, Shane van Gisbergen (#97 ZB Commodore) was seen getting impatient with Chris Pither (#22 Coca-Cola ZB Commodore) as they ran down the hill in the latter half of the session, although they did not make contact.

Warren Luff had a tour up the Murray’s Corner run-off area in Nick Percat’s #2 Mobil 1 NTI ZB Commodore, but that was an innocuous incident.

As usual, teams conducted pit stop practice, including rotor changes and driver changes, with a notable initiative being the laying down of towels, mats, or the like to keep the incoming driver’s boots from getting too wet.

While there was no rain, the track had been quite wet for a slightly late session start of 08:10 local time, and 2020 race winner van Gisbergen set the early pace.

His 2:25.9368s was the fastest first flyer and his 2:23.9341s was the fastest second flyer, before Golding took over top spot with a 2:23.1853s in the 13th minute.

That was still the quickest lap when the chequered flag came out, before Davison and Holdsworth were among those to jump up.

Will Brown (#9 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore) had been second when the 20 minutes elapsed but ended up sixth, from Craig Lowndes (#888 Supercheap Auto ZB Commodore), Waters, Bryce Fullwood (#14 Middy’s ZB Commodore), and 2021 race winner Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore).

All that remains now is the race itself, with the start of the 161-lapper officially scheduled for 11:15 local time/AEDT.

Results: Warm Up