Feeney tops first Ipswich practice after strange stoppage

Feeney set the pace early in the session on a 1:09.4166s before being bested by Anton De Pasquale in the #18 Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro just short of halfway with a 1:09.4043s.

However, in the closing minutes, Feeney put the #88 back to the top of the timesheets with a 1:09.3203s which he then bettered to a 1:09.2078s.

De Pasquale was second (+0.1965s) ahead of Matt Stone Racing’s Cameron Hill (+0.2271s).

With the benefit of an extra set of tyres, wildcards Cameron Crick (MSR) and Zach Bates (Triple Eight) wound up fourth and fifth with a deficit of 0.2381s and 0.2393s respectively.

Will Brown made it an all-Chevrolet top six, just 0.2592s off his chart-topping teammate.

Walkinshaw Andretti United driver Ryan Wood was the best of the Ford contingent in seventh, three tenths off the pace while Brodie Kostecki was eighth for Dick Johnson Racing.

Chaz Mostert was ninth in the other Walkinshaw Andretti United Mustang while James Courtney completed the top 10 for the Blanchard Racing Team in the #600 car.

Practice lasted just three minutes before being stopped after a rogue oil bottle feel from Jaxon Evans’ Brad Jones Racing Camaro.

A post-session investigation into the #12 driver for a pit lane infringement was confirmed by race control.

There were some surprises in the 26-car order, with top Ford team Grove Racing down in 19th and 24th with Matthew Payne and Kai Allen respectively.

Fellow Ford team Tickford Racing struggled too. Cam Waters was 20th and Thomas Randle 23rd.

“It’s only Practice 1. Don’t write me off,” said Waters.

“We haven’t been here for a long time and it’s a lot of people’s test tracks so they’ve also got a nice set-up here.

“We rolled out with a couple of different cars and tried to learn.

“Pretty happy that it was dry then and we’re not going into qualifying with no dry running.

“We’ll be all right, we’ll have a think about it, we’ve got another practice.”

“You’re drawing everything you know before you go to a race track and you put your best foot forward, for sure.

“Haven’t been here for a long time so things do change. It’s a different car since last time we were here. I just haven’t driven here.

“It’s all good. We know we’ve got a bit up our sleeve, for sure. We need to make the cars a little bit faster and we’ll see where we end up.”

Practice 2 at the Ipswich Super440 is scheduled for 2:20pm AEST.

Results: Century Batteries Ipswich Super440 Practice 1, Queensland Raceway