Hazelwood stars in Ipswich co-driver practice

Todd Hazelwood produced an impressive display to top the additional driver practice session at the Coates Hire Ipswich Super Sprint.

The South Australian fired in a 1:09.75s effort behind the wheel of the #21 Brad Jones Racing Commodore he will share with Tim Blanchard for the Pirtek Enduro Cup.

Hazelwood, who is also running as a wildcard in the main game this weekend, was almost half a second fastest than his nearest rival Steven Richards in the 30 minute session at Queensland Raceway.

“It was great fun out there. The BJR Cooldrive Commodore was on rails, it was quite surprising,” said Hazelwood.

“Very happy with my laps, obviously done quite a few laps around this circuit but first time in the BJR chassis, so a lot to different to what I’m used to but really enjoyable.

Richards was 0.44s adrift in the #888 Triple Eight Commodore while Shae Davies was third fastest in the MW Motorsport wildcard Nissan Altima.

Luke Youlden was fourth in the #9 Erebus Motorsport Holden he will share with David Reynolds for the enduros.

Warren Luff was fifth in the #2 Mobil 1 HSV Racing Holden.

The Gold Coast-based driver and fellow HSV Racing co-driver Jack Perkins enjoyed runs in both the #2 and #22 Commodores.

The top 10 was completed by Ash Walsh (#14 Brad Jones Racing), Steve Owen (#55 Prodrive Ford), Tony D’Alberto (#12 DJR Team Penske Ford), Dean Fiore (#23 Nissan Motorsport) and Bryce Fullwood in the #7 Nissan Altima.

D’Alberto enjoyed runs in both the #12 and #17 DJRTP Falcons with Scott McLaughlin’s co-driver Alex Premat unable to attend the round.

The #88 and #97 Red Bull Holden Racing Team cars were absent from the session with co-drivers Paul Dumbrell and Matt Campbell also absent from the meeting.

The session came to a premature end for Macauley Jones who was behind the wheel of Nick Percat’s #8 Brad Jones Racing Commodore.

The car suffered an engine issue with 10 minutes remaining forcing Jones back to the pits, with the team likely to conduct a power unit change.

Meanwhile, Matt Chahda propped up the timesheets as he made his Supercars debut after be awarded a temporary CAMS Superlicence for the session.

The Dunlop Super2 Series driver was denied a superlicence easier this year after being announced as the primary driver for the #3 Lucas Dumbrell Commodore.

Chahda was more that 2.5s adrift of the pace set by Hazelwood.

Results: Virgin Australia Supercars Championship: Coates Hire Ipswich Super Sprint: Additional Driver Practice