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Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki has set the fastest lap for the second Repco Supercars Championship practice session in a row at the Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.
The championship leader topped Practice 1 at Symmons Plains on a 0:51.0147s and has now set the Practice 2 benchmark of 0:51.1721s in his #99 Coca-Cola Camaro.
The second session of the morning ended with an all-Chevrolet top three, rounded out by Jack Le Brocq (#34 Truck Assist Camaro) and Will Brown (#9 Coca-Cola Camaro), with Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Mustang) the only Ford driver in the top nine on the timesheet.
One of Randle’s Tickford Racing team-mates, James Courtney, had a huge scare in the final minute of the session as he blazed past traffic up the back straight.
Most stayed left but David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang) weaved right as Courtney reached the braking markers, forcing him to throw the #5 Snowy Rivers Caravans Mustang into the weeds, although he escaped major damage.
Almost 90 minutes had elapsed between Practice 1 and Practice 2, meaning the mercury had risen somewhat relative to the very cold morning conditions.
Like-for-like, the first flyers were almost four seconds quicker than in the earlier session, with Chaz Mostert initially leading the way in Practice 2 on a 0:52.3842s in the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang.
Next time through, it became an Erebus one-two with Brown on a 0:51.5713s and Kostecki on a 0:51.6065s, and that was how the first runs ended.
Matt Stone Racing’s Jack Le Brocq moved the marker on his second run with back-to-back fastest laps, a 0:51.4041s and then a 0:51.2434s.
At the end of the second runs, he was top, from Mark Winterbottom (#18 DeWalt Camaro) on a 0:51.2705s and Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro) on a 0:51.3316s, in an all-Chevrolet top nine.
Meanwhile, Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton De Pasquale was out of his #11 Shell V-Power Mustang due to an apparent driveline failure which saw him unable to pull gears down the back ‘straight’.
Officials were also busy, with an investigation into nose-to-tail contact between Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro) and Declan Fraser (#56 Tradie Mustang) which saw the latter run off the road and through the gravel at Turn 2.
As the session wore into its latter 10 minutes, Shane van Gisbergen (#97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro) moved up to third on a 0:51.3299s and then second place on a 0:51.2637s, before the bulk of the field got onto green tyres for their final runs.
Kostecki jumped up from 10th to first with a 0:51.1721s and Brown subsequently went second on a 0:51.2263s with the chequered flag out, then Le Brocq split them on a 0:51.1911s.
Randle ended up fourth on a 0:51.21510s, from Winterbottom – who had minor moment at Brambles Hairpin late in the session – van Gisbergen, James Golding (#31 Nulon Camaro), and Feeney, the latter of whom missed out on proper final run when he had trouble starting his #88 Camaro again.
Tim Slade (#23 Nulon Camaro) finished ninth and Todd Hazelwood (#3 CoolDrive Mustang) rounded out the top 10 in the second of the Fords.
Qualifying for Race 10 of the season, a knockout session, starts at 12:55 local time/AEST.
