Kostecki tops shortened Townsville Supercars practice

Matt Stone Racing’s Jack Le Brocq reported a steering issue after stopping at Turn 8.

With only one practice session on Friday, the red flag fell awkwardly just as teams and drivers were preparing to start their qualifying simulations.

That meant Kostecki’s chart-topping 1:13.6835s went unchallenged.

Kostecki, who completed just eight laps of the Red Park Street Circuit, was happy with his Ford Mustang.

“We obviously rolled out pretty good and the car was pretty pacey straight away,” said Kostecki.

“The category that was on before us (Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge) has a different tyre compound, so it sort of masks a lot of the balance issues.

“We’re just trying to play out to what the track is going to be like for qualifying. Just trying to go through our planned changes and try to see if we can make the Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang a little bit better.

“So far, it’s looking pretty good. Time will tell. The track is going to evolve. The track was pretty dirty out there at the moment. We’ll stick to our plan and hopefully the car is good in qualifying.

“We were just looking to see what the car was going to do on a new set of green tyres, but I guess everyone will find out in quali.

“The car has been pretty good all year so I have no doubts it’ll be there or thereabouts.”

Will Brown was second for Triple Eight with a 1:13.7665s to put him just 0.0830s away from Kostecki.

Anton De Pasquale was third for Team 18 ahead of Matt Payne (Grove Racing) and Broc Feeney (Triple Eight).

Cooper Murray was an impressive sixth for Erebus Motorsport after banking a lap just before the red flag came out with one minute and 40 seconds remaining.

Cameron Waters (Tickford Racing), Ryan Wood (Walkinshaw TWG), Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw TWG) and James Golding (Blanchard Racing Team) completed the top 10.

Tickford wildcard Reuben Goodall was similarly impressive in 12th, four tenths off Kostecki.

Thomas Randle spent most of the session in last before improving late to 21st.

The Tickford driver battled stability issues and confirmed after the session that the team would change the steering rack.

“I wish we knew what it was, but it’s just tracking weird under brakes,” Randle explained mid-session.

“You don’t really want that here at a street circuit – or anywhere.

“We’ve tried a few things, nothing seems to have rectified it yet, which is obviously frustrating because we’ve only got one practice session and you’re straight into qualifying and we haven’t really done a lap yet.”

Qualifying for Race 1 of the Townsville 500 gets underway at 12:55pm AEST.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship NTI Townsville 500, Practice 1