The return of dry conditions meant the 20-minute hit out took on extra importance after the majority of Saturday’s running took place in the wet.

However, there was just one lap of the 3.1km circuit for the #9 Erebus Camaro of Jack Le Brocq/Jayden Ojeda due to fuel pressure issues.

“It’s strange,” said Erebus CEO Barry Ryan. “It was perfect in qualifying yesterday and out the gate it had a fuel pressure drama.

“We didn’t want to risk the engine so we [thought we’d] bring it in, put some new fuel pumps in it and it should be fine for the race.”

There was more drama for Erebus when a pitstop for its #1 Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood Camaro resulted in the team attempting to send the car before a right-rear wheel was fitted.

Shambles in pit lane for car #1 😬

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“They were practicing a change for the race,” explained Ryan, referring to a setup tweak, “and it took longer than the driver [change], which caught out the car controller. 

“He said ‘drop the car’ and the change wasn’t actually finished. It’s just a procedural thing we’ll fix, it’ll be fine.”

It was a session riddled with small mistakes up and down pitlane as teams practiced full race-spec pitstops including refuelling and driver changes.

Heimgartner set the best lap of 1:08.6344s before handing the #8 Brad Jones Racing Camaro over to co-driver Declan Fraser for the remainder of the session.

The Thomas Randle/Tyler Everingham Mustang wound up second from Tim Slade/Cameron McLeod, Matt Payne/Garth Tander and Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup.

The Blanchard Racing Team’s #3 CoolDrive Mustang returned to the track after its crash in the hands of Aaron Love during qualifying on Saturday.

Love ended up 25th on the timesheet, 1.2s from Heimgartner’s pace.

The Sandown 500 is set to take place from 2:05pm local time.

Results: Penrite Oil Sandown 500 Warm Up