Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle has set the pace in an all-Ford Mustang top five in Practice 1 for the Repco Supercars Championship field at The Bend.
Randle wheeled the #55 Castrol Mustang to a 1:50.8386s during his second run in the opening, half-hour session at the OTR SuperSprint, which he finished 0.0795s ahead of Grove Racing’s Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Mustang).
Shell V-Power Racing Team duo Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale were classified third and fifth, split by Tickford’s Cameron Waters, with Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Broc Feeney first of the Chevrolet contingent in sixth at 0.4870s off the pace.
Feeney’s team-mate Shane van Gisbergen, however, ended up last having hardly set a representative lap time.
Ironically, despite a reported pre-event upgrade to the clamping system which connects the steering column to the rack in the Gen3 Supercars, he complained of handling issues in the #97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro.
The field rolled out in chilly conditions at The Bend, with Feeney’s 1:51.5628s in the #88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro the fastest of the initial flying laps.
By the time most had completed their first, typically two-lap run, he was third on a 1:51.3256s, behind Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) on a 1:51.2249s and De Pasquale (#11 Mustang) on a 1:51.3244s.
Van Gisbergen was slowest on a 1:54.3322s, with the Triple Eight crew under the bonnet of the #97 Camaro due to his report of a steering problem.
He was dispatched again, but did not complete a full lap before pitting to end his second run and stepping out of the car, which so happens to be the (former) wildcard chassis with which the New Zealander took victory in the previous race of the season at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Randle made it a Tickford Racing one-two when he went top on a 1:50.8386s then Waters improved his time but not his position in clocking a 1:51.1212s.
Payne had already crept up to third before, in the final minute, he gained another position with a 1:50.9181s, while Davison (#17 Mustang) jumped to third from 12th with the chequered flag out on a 1:51.0667s.
Feeney’s best was his aforementioned first-run effort, with the top 10 rounded out by James Courtney (#5 Snowy River Caravans Mustang), Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro), championship leader Brodie Kostecki (#99 Coca-Cola Camaro), and David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang), with Will Brown (#9 Coca-Cola Camaro) 11th.
Other notables were Jack Le Brocq (#34 Truck Assist Mustang) in 12th and Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) in 16th.
Practice 2 starts this morning at 11:40 local time/12:10 AEST.
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