Friday’s Supercars race was scheduled for 4:20pm ACDT. Race director James Taylor said a 30-minute signal was planned for 4:10pm ACDT for a potential 4:40pm ACDT start.

Rain is expected to continue into the evening, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

NASCAR Cup Series driver Austin Cindric, who is competing as a wildcard with Tickford Racing at the Adelaide Grand Final, offered an amusing response to the conditions.

“I’ve been saying that I’m drinking through a fire hose coming here, I didn’t think I meant it quite literally – as we watch a river on pit road,” he joked.

“It should be interesting. I think I stand to learn a lot today. I’ve always been a believer that in extreme conditions you learn the most about the car that you’re driving.

“I think it’ll honestly help me throughout the weekend. Kind of focused to get all the laps in. My first standing start is going to be in the wet, so throw away everything I’ve learned on that.

“It should be fun, but I want to keep the thing going straight the whole time and learn as much as I can.”

It will be the second time Cindric has driven the car in the wet after rain struck the post-Sandown 500 ride day – albeit not as heavy as in Adelaide.

Asked whether he had been offered any advice by teammates Thomas Randle, Cameron Waters and his co-driver Mark Winterbottom, Cindric replied: “Put the bias to the rear and hope for the best.”

He added: “I think that’s kind of the theme right now. The thing about wet running is it’s not like you can look at data and find out marks and things like that.

“You really have to feel the track and understand the grip. I’m going to be learning this rain tyre. I did run a little bit at Sandown in a bit of a drizzle. I have a bit of an idea of where this rain tyre stacks up to what we run in the Cup Series in NASCAR.”

The earlier Dunlop Super2 Series qualifying session was scheduled for a 3:20pm ACDT start but was cancelled due to persistent rain.

The grid for Sunday’s race will be determined by the combined times across Practice 1 and Practice 2. Brad Jones Racing driver Brad Vaughan was quickest at the end of Thursday’s running.

“Sadly, bad news for the Dunlop Series,” said commentator Chad Neylon.

“We are not going to be getting any green flag running here. We could race some boats, but that’s about it here at the minute.”

The subsequent speed comparison featuring the Red Bull RB8 and a Holden ZB Commodore was also cancelled as a result.

Fans were instead treated to a rendition of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes, played by the 2.4-litre, naturally aspirated V8 by Renault.