Payne fastest in Perth as Tickford wildcard nearly rolls

Payne set a 54.3903s in the #19 Penrite Ford Mustang to lead Anton De Pasquale, who trailed by 0.0856s in the #18 DeWalt Camaro.

Thomas Randle was third in the #55 Castrol Mustang for Tickford Racing, 0.2s off the pace.

There were seven different teams in the top seven. After Randle came Broc Feeney (Triple Eight), James Golding (PremiAir), Chaz Mostert (WAU), and Jaxon Evans (BJR). Will Brown (Triple Eight), James Courtney (BRT), and Macauley Jones (BJR) completed the top 10.

Like Jaxon Evans did in Practice 1, Payne was able to improve on the same set of tyres on his second attack lap during Practice 2.

It marked a big uptick between sessions for Payne, who was only 16th in Practice 1.

“It’s just part of our session. I knew we were going to get a little bit baulked by (David) Reynolds, so I just backed out of it and went again,” said Payne.

“Everyone stayed cool. It’s a really, really awesome turnaround from Practice 1. It obviously wasn’t ideal for us rolling out the truck the way we did.

“It’s a real credit to the guys getting it tuned up and get it to the front of Practice 2.

“It’s tough. It’s only two 30-minute practice sessions. You’ve got to squeeze everything you can. We did a really good job of just going through what we did in Practice 1.

“We tried a lot, so credit to the guys. They did an awesome job. I know we’ve got the best crew here. We’re working out arses off to get this thing fast and thankfully we did.

“It’s pretty cool. Press on for tomorrow.”

The session was punctuated by a close call for wildcard Lochie Dalton, who buried his car in the gravel trap at Turn 1 just over 12 minutes into the 30-minute session.

The #5 Tickford Racing Mustang dug into the run-off and got up on two wheels.

Dalton threatened to remake the 2003 scenes of Steven Ellery’s rollover at Wanneroo Raceway but was fortunate not to tip over onto his roof.

“You could see there where it dug in – got nearly beyond 45 [degrees] there, Neil (Crompton),” said Garth Tander on commentary.

“It got your attention, I reckon it would have got Lochie Dalton’s attention as well.

“That’s pretty close to beyond the 45 and when they go beyond 45 degrees they definitely keep going.”

The first red flag of the weekend comes courtesy of Lochie Dalton who locks up and ends up in the sand trap at Turn 1!#RepcoSC #Supercars pic.twitter.com/QWARMNqLP1

— Supercars (@supercars) June 6, 2025

Action at the Perth Super440 will continue on Saturday at 11:45am AEST.

Results: Bosch Power Tools Perth Super440, Practice 2