Fullwood snatches top spot in Rookie Practice

Bryce Fullwood has claimed early honours at the OTR SuperSprint The Bend with a late flyer that saw him finish fastest in Rookie Practice by almost four tenths.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver prevailed in an expanded field of 11 rookie and second-year steerers which included Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 co-drivers for the first time.

The 20-minute session was also the first official Supercars running on The Bend Motorsport Park’s West Circuit layout, which turns right just beyond the usual Turn 6 hairpin.

Fullwood drove the #2 Mobil 1 Middy’s ZB Commodore to a 1:15.9371s with the chequered flag out before Matt Stone Racing’s Jake Kostecki (#34 Unit ZB Commodore) jumped from the bottom of the timing screen to almost the top, albeit still 0.3681s away from the Territorian.

Macauley Jones (#3 CoolDrive ZB Commodore) had himself moved back into first position just seconds prior to the chequered flag coming out and therefore ended up third with a 1:16.5057s.

That effort dislodged Broc Feeney (#44 Boost Mobile Mustang), who was driving James Courtney’s Tickford Racing entry, by 0.0150s.

Feeney was nevertheless fastest of the co-drivers in fourth position and almost half a second clear of Team Sydney’s Chris Pither (#22 Coca-Cola ZB Commodore), who took fifth.

The remaining six drivers in the session were within another seven tenths of Pither.

BJR entries filled sixth through eighth, headed up by Jordan Boys (#14 TRG Transport ZB Commodore) from Thomas Randle (#8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore) and Jack Smith (#4 SCT Logistics ZB Commodore).

Garry Jacobson (#35 Yellow Cover ZB Commodore) and Brodie Kostecki (#99 Penrite ZB Commodore) rounded out the top 10.

Kurt Kostecki was 11th having hopped into Chaz Mostert’s #25 Mobil 1 Appliances Online ZB Commodore given the man with whom he will drive at Bathurst was still in Car #2.

Practice 1 starts at 09:35 local time/10:05 AEST.

Results: Rookie Practice