Brown in bizarre Townsville practice crash, Wood fastest

The #1 Red Bull Ampol Racing car came back to the pit lane with a wound on the left front after it clipped the wall exiting Turn 2.

That sent it into a spin before grabbing the wall on the chute towards Turn 3, which clipped the rear wing from the boot.

Brown explained the incident in detail post-session.

“I didn’t find it too bad out there, to be honest. It’s a very easy place to do it where I did,” said Brown.

“I was just trying to flow it out towards the wall and not get a slide going out there and I hit the fence.

“Luckily, it’s done minimal damage compared to what it could have been. I thought it was going to ricochet me into the other fence.

“Sorry to our team, the car seems good. The reused tyre seemed fast towards the end of the stint there. I’m getting back comfortable with it.

“We’ll be fine. It’s obviously disappointing for the crew, but we’ll be right.

“I feel really comfortable in the car. I actually feel like the car was really good then.

“I didn’t get the most out of the tyre on our first run, just getting back into the groove of this car.

“I felt like towards the end we were really strong then.

“I better help the boys clean it or something, get it ready in an hour for the next practice.

“I was going for my last lap. I was actually thinking about cooling it off but I thought we’ll do another lap and see if we have much tyre deg.

“Probably shouldn’t have done another lap, I guess. It’s fine, it’ll be all right.”

Ryan Wood was quickest, leading Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Broc Feeney on Friday morning.

The 30-minute session ran without any major issues until Brown’s incident.

Brad Jones Racing driver Andre Heimgarter tested the limits of his #8 R&J Batteries Chevrolet Camaro at the third-to-last turn and ended up in the run-off.

In the closing minutes of the session, Cooper Murray in his new-look #99 Dare Iced Coffee-backed Erebus Motorsport Camaro bowled a wide at the chicane.

After Feeney came Anton De Pasquale for Team 18 ahead of Wood’s teammate Chaz Mostert and Kai Allen.

Brown, Thomas Randle, Jack Le Brocq, Brodie Kostecki, and Heimgartner completed the top 10. There were no late improvements with the best times set midway through the session.

It marked the session Supercars event in a row that Wood was quickest in Practice 1 thanks to the rookie rules that give first- and second-year drivers an additional set of tyres.

“Not too bad. Obviously we rolled out on greens. I’m sure you guys have covered it,” said Wood, speaking with Jess Yates, Mark Skaife, and Garth Tander on the Supercars broadcast.

“Up and down. I still feel like we’ve got a lot of work to do. Our car feels strong but around here tyre life is key.

“We’re definitely trying to find that, but nice to roll out on a Friday where we’re racing, half-speedy with both cars.”

Practice 2 at the NTI Townsville 500 is scheduled for 11:10am AEST.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship NTI Townsville 500, Practice 1