Waters paces eventful Darwin Supercars practice, rookie crashes

Waters clocked a session-best 1:06.2863s in the closing minutes to pip his Grove Racing rival Matt Payne by 0.0633s.

It was a strong conclusion to the session for Waters, having had an unusual moment at the final turn when he spun on his own 10 minutes into the 50-minute outing.

“I don’t mind it moving around but not that much it wants to spin out, so that was a bit of a shock to the system on lap one,” said Waters.

“The car is obviously quite speedy. It’s nice to top a session again. It’s like I had forgotten how to do it there for a little bit there.

“The car was really good. We made some really good changes through the session.

“I think everyone is probably chasing similar things, a bit loose in and things like that.

“It’s a nice way to start the weekend.

“It should get quicker as the rubber goes down [on the track] but there is a lot of cloud cover and it’s quite cool compared to what it is normally up here.

“If it heats up, the track is probably going to get slower. We’ll keep a keen eye on the weather and we’ll try and tune accordingly.”

Jack Le Brocq was the surprise packet in third for Matt Stone Racing as the best of the Chevrolet Camaro contingent while Walkinshaw TWG Racing’s Chaz Mostert was fourth in the fastest Toyota Supra.

Triple Eight driver Will Brown had been the best on a 1:06.5191s until the final few minutes. He eventually dropped to sixth behind PremiAir Racing’s Jayden Ojeda.

Kai Allen (Grove Racing), Anton De Pasquale (Team 18), Thomas Randle (Tickford Racing) and David Reynolds (Team 18) completed the top 10.

Practice began with engine issues for Brodie Kostecki, who reported a throttle body problem.

The Dick Johnson Racing driver spent the opening 15 minutes idle in the pits. He logged just 12 laps en route to 12th with a time 0.2837s off the leading pace.

Turn 1 was a hot spot for off-track moments. Brown was the first driver to explore the grass outfield before Walkinshaw TWG teammates Mostert and Ryan Wood followed suit.

Allen also explored the braking limits at Turn 1, as did Blanchard Racing Team driver James Golding. His teammate Aaron Cameron got loose entering Turn 10 and had a close encounter with the outside wall.

Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney was relegated to his pit garage with an inconsistent brake pedal, necessitating a caliper and disc change. He was only 13th.

Jackson Walls limped back to the pit lane with the right rear corner askew after hitting the Turn 14 barrier inside the final 15 minutes.

“Just a small error really,” said Walls.

“Was closing in on Andre [Heimgartner], not sure what he was up to, but got a bit distracted and got the inside kerb at the last corner and bounced funny into the grass.

“That grass is wet so I felt like I picked up another 20 km/h in the grass and just rubbed the fence and it’s bent something.

“No big issues. The boys will have it fixed in no time and we’ll be out for quali.”

Qualifying for Race 1 of the Darwin Triple Crown gets underway at 1:35pm AEST.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship betr Darwin Triple Crown, Practice 1