Evans tops first Perth Supercars practice in Kiwi one-two

Under a new rule for 2025, first- and second-year drivers are given an extra set of tyres for Practice 1. Evans was among them, as was Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Ryan Wood.

Wood clocked a 55.446s in the #2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing Ford Mustang on his fifth lap of Wanneroo Raceway, which stood the test of time for the lion’s share of the session.

However, with two minutes to go, Evans shot to the top in the #12 SCT Racing Chevrolet Camaro on a 55.236s. He bettered his benchmark a lap later with a 55.086s to come out on top.

“It’s really nice to finish the session on top, it’s the first time I’ve done it in Supercars,” said Evans.

“It’s all been going well. Rolling off Tassie, which was a pretty strong round for us as a group, we rolled the car out and it seemed pretty fast.

“Being in my second year in the championship I get an extra set of tyres, so we obviously put that to good use. It’s just nice to know the car is fast.

“Even those first few laps I think caught most of us by surprise, there was a lot more grip than what I was expecting from the soft tyre,” he added.

“Track progression is obviously a thing here and putting a set of greens on at the end once everyone had done 30 minutes of running really helped.”

Behind Evans and Wood came Supercars series points leader Broc Feeney in the #88 Red Bull Ampol Racing Camaro, whose best effort also came at the death of the session.

Anton De Pasquale, James Courtney, Will Brown, Chaz Mostert, Cameron Waters, Thomas Randle, and James Golding completed the top 10. Lochie Dalton was 12th in the Tickford Racing wildcard just behind Andre Heimgartner.

Erebus Motorsport and Dick Johnson Raceway were surprisingly slow. Jack Le Brocq was 22nd while teammate Cooper Murray was 25th. Similarly, Brodie Kostecki was only 21st and Will Davison 24th.

The session was punctuated by a few wild moments. Blanchard Racing Team driver James Courtney went wide out of Turn 5 before washing out of Turn 6 at the bottom of the dust bowl.

Team 18 drivers Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds were out in the weeds too. The #18 DeWalt Racing Camaro went wide at Turn 6 but the #18 Tradie Camaro went wider and off into the gravel.

Practice 2 at the Perth Super440 gets underway at 3:55pm AEST.

Results: Bosch Power Tools Perth Super440, Practice 1