Broc Feeney has gone fastest in a rain-affected opening practice session for Round 2 of the Dunlop Super2 Series at the NTI Townsville 500.
The Triple Eight Race Engineering driver wound up on top from two drivers in Triple Eight-built cars, namely Eggleston Motorsport’s Tim Blanchard and Matt Stone Racing’s Aaron Seton.
Drizzle at the start of the 40-minute session caught out Super2 rookie Jaylyn Robotham (#999 Image Racing VF Commodore), who found the wall at Turn 8.
That drew a red flag in the seventh minute, at which time Feeney (#888 VF Commodore) held sway on a 1:17.3565s after three complete laps.
The precipitation ceased during that halt in track activity, leaving a dry albeit very green Reid Park Street Circuit when the session went green flag again in the 13th minute.
Feeney immediately lowered the benchmark to a 1:15.2700s while Blanchard (#88 VF Commodore), back in Super2 this weekend as preparation for the Bathurst 1000, started his second run with a next-best 1:15.6196s.
Another shower with around 15 minutes remaining in the session caught out a handful of big-name drivers, although none came to serious harm.
Feeney came close to setting an even faster lap inside the final five minutes, going quickest to the second sector but ultimately breaking the beam at a time of 1:15.3814s.
Blanchard remained second at 0.3496s adrift, with Seton almost that much further off the pace thanks to a 1:15.9498s during his second run in the #30 VF Commodore.
Jordan Boys (#49 Image Racing VF Commodore) ended up fourth, ahead of Tyler Everingham (#27 MW Motorsport Nissan Altima) and Matt Chahda (#18 Matt Chahda Motorsport FGX Falcon).
Triple Eight’s Angelo Mouzouris (#6 VF Commodore) had an innocuous off at Turn 11 on his way to seventh, Josh Fife (#28 MWM Nissan Altima) was eighth, and Jayden Ojeda (#31 MWM Nissan Altima) finished ninth having had a big lock-up at Turn 1 during the second rain shower.
Super2 Series leader Zak Best (#78 Tickford Racing FGX Falcon) rounded out the top 10 and Michael Anderson (#5 Anderson Motorsport FG Falcon) was best of the Super3 class in 16th outright on a 1:18.0391s.
Practice 2, another 40-minute session, starts this afternoon at 13:35 local time/AEST.
Results: Practice 1
Pos | Num | Team/Sponsor | Driver | Car | Cls | Fastest lap | Split |
1 | 888 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Broc Feeney | Holden Commodore VF | S2 | 1:15.2700 | |
2 | 88 | Eggleston Motorsport | Tim Blanchard | Holden Commodore VF | S2 | 1:15.6196 | 0:00.3496 |
3 | 30 | Matt Stone Racing | Aaron Seton | Holden Commodore VF | S2 | 1:15.9498 | 0:00.6798 |
4 | 49 | Joss Group / Image Racing | Jordan Boys | Holden Commodore VF | S2 | 1:15.9677 | 0:00.6977 |
5 | 27 | Blue Ribbon Legal / MWM | Tyler Everingham | Nissan Altima | S2 | 1:16.1346 | 0:00.8646 |
6 | 18 | Adventure Kings | Matthew Chahda | Ford Falcon FG/X | S2 | 1:16.1456 | 0:00.8756 |
7 | 6 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Angelo Mouzouris | Holden Commodore VF | S2 | 1:16.1741 | 0:00.9041 |
8 | 28 | Natural Gas and Water / MWM | Josh Fife | Nissan Altima | S2 | 1:16.2077 | 0:00.9377 |
9 | 31 | Jayco / MWM | Jayden Ojeda | Nissan Altima | S2 | 1:16.3102 | 0:01.0402 |
10 | 78 | Best Leisure Industries | Zak Best | Ford Falcon FG/X | S2 | 1:16.4305 | 0:01.1605 |
11 | 777 | Red Hot Couriers / MWM | Declan Fraser | Nissan Altima | S2 | 1:16.5193 | 0:01.2493 |
12 | 11 | Brema Group Racing | Zane Morse | Holden Commodore VF | S2 | 1:16.5588 | 0:01.2888 |
13 | 54 | Eggleston Motorsport | Matthew McLean | Holden Commodore VF | S2 | 1:16.6606 | 0:01.3906 |
14 | 69 | Dial Before You Dig | Jon McCorkindale | Holden Commodore VF | S2 | 1:17.2660 | 0:01.9960 |
15 | 38 | Eggleston Motorsport | Jack Sipp | Holden Commodore VF | S2 | 1:17.8074 | 0:02.5374 |
16 | 5 | Anderson Motorsport | Michael Anderson | Ford Falcon FG | SC3 | 1:18.0391 | 0:02.7691 |
17 | 67 | Flash Bush Motorsport | Nash Morris | Ford Falcon FG | CH | 1:18.2010 | 0:02.9310 |
18 | 35 | Unit Racing | Jason Gomersall | Ford Falcon FG | SC3 | 1:18.3310 | 0:03.0610 |
19 | 77 | Mr HDT Race Cars | Blake Fardell | Holden Commodore VE | CH | 1:18.8111 | 0:03.5411 |
20 | 61 | Image Racing | Reef McCarthy | Ford Falcon FG | CH | 1:19.3358 | 0:04.0658 |
21 | 75 | Linc Scaffolding | Brendan Strong | Holden Commodore VE | SC3 | 1:20.0308 | 0:04.7608 |
22 | 24 | North West Recycling | David Murphy | Ford Falcon FG | SC3 | 1:20.7881 | 0:05.5181 |
23 | 39 | Vectra Group | Chris Smerdon | Ford Falcon FG | SC3 | 1:21.2453 | 0:05.9753 |
24 | 999 | Rare Spares / Image Racing | Jaylyn Robotham | Holden Commodore VF | S2 | 1:21.5323 | 0:06.2623 |
25 | 2 | Page Bros Jayco | Steven Page | Holden Commodore VE2 | SC3 | 1:21.7104 | 0:06.4404 |
26 | 96 | Collins Racing | Gary Collins | Holden Commodore VE2 | SC3 | 1:25.9016 | 0:10.6316 |