Ojeda quickest in crash-interrupted Super2 practice

MW Motorsport’s Jayden Ojeda has gone fastest in Practice 1 for Round 1 of the Dunlop Super2 Series at Mount Panorama, while Jordan Boys came to grief.

Ojeda, last year’s leading rookie, left it until after the chequered flag to lay down a 2:08.1463s in the #31 Nissan Altima, nabbing top spot from new Eggleston Motorsport driver Matt McLean.

The latter had similarly knocked Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Broc Feeney off his perch with a 2:08.4903s in the #54 VF Commodore, while Boys ended up fourth despite missing the latter minutes due to a crash at The Chase.

The Image Racing driver went off shortly before the half-hour mark in Car #49 and hit the wall, causing an interruption of almost 10 minutes, although Boys was OK.

Zak Best (#78 FGX Falcon) rounded out the top five in his first session for Tickford Racing, while best of the Super3 runners was Jon McCorkindale (#69 Mac Motorsport FG Falcon) in 13th outright.

What was to have been a 40-minute hit-out started just over 40 minutes late due to heavy fog in South Bathurst and, with yellow flag conditions for the start of proceedings, it took almost 10 minutes more before the first anywhere near representative laps came.

Fastest then was Matt Chahda (#18 Matt Chahda Motorsport FGX Falcon) with a 2:13.4254s, but that was knocked off next time around by Boys’ 2:09.9488s, among others.

Boys was briefly usurped by Chahda but lowered the benchmark further on his third flying lap to 2:09.1960s, just before pitting.

McLean then took over the mantle with a 2:08.9821s immediately before he too filed into the lane.

With almost 20 minutes down, Feeney went to a 2:08.6944s in the #888 VF Commodore, only to be pipped moments later by Ojeda with a 2:08.6604s.

Boys split them at the start of his second run with a 2:08.6691s which included the then-fastest second sector, but came unstuck at The Chase shortly after.

Feeney moved up from third to first with a 2:08.4980s in the 43rd minute, the session having apparently been extended due to the early yellow period, and that looked like it would be enough for bragging rights until McLean and then Ojeda came through at the end.

Feeney’s Triple Eight team-mate, Angelo Mouzouris, ended up sixth in the #10 VF Commodore and was last within a second of the best pace.

Seventh through 12th were Tyler Everingham (#27 MWM Nissan Altima), Chahda, Jaylyn Robotham (#999 Image VF Commodore), Declan Fraser (#777 MWM Altima), Zane Morse (#11 Zane Morse Racing VF Commodore), and Aaron Seton (#30 Matt Stone Racing VF Commodore).

Josh Fife did not set a representative lap time due to an engine issue for the #28 MWM Altima, and Jack Sipp did not set a time at all in the #38 Eggleston VF Commodore.

Practice 2, another 40-minute session, is scheduled for 15:10 local time/AEDT.

Results: Practice 1