Davidson posted a best lap of 2:23.8535 in the M3 he is sharing with Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey. Russell who is driving an M4 with former winner Shane Smollen and Tom McLennan, was fastest in Practice 1 and second overall while Randle was third in the M2 of brothers Ben and Michael Kavich.

The morning’s first practice session ran uninterrupted before Practice 2 was stopped by two short red flags, firstly for the Class C Renault Megane of Jackson Rice, and then the now merged Class B1 and B2 BMW M3 Coupe of Richard Shinkfield/Ettore Vosolo/Chris Holdt.

Brothers Grant and Iain Sherrin (M4) were fourth fastest of the 59 entries, ahead of Michael Auld/Tyler Everingham/Brianna Wilson (M3), Dean Campbell/Cameron Crick (M2), Simon Hodges/George Miedecke/Jayden Ojeda (M4) and Scott Turner, Rob Rubis and Jordan Cox (M4).

Nineth and best of the A2 Class were Aaron Seton, Jason and Ben Gomersall in their Ford Mustang ahead of Tony Quinn/Ryder Quinn/Grant Denyer and Chris Delfsma/Rylan Gray/Ryan Casha, also in Mustangs.

Class A1 was topped Cem Yucel and Iain Salteri in their Volkswagen Golf R in 17th outright. In the combined Class B it was Peter O’Donnel, Matt Chahda and Gerry Mennell in the venerable BMW 335i while Class C honours went with the James Hay/Paul Ansell/Michael Learoyd Volkswagen Scirocco R.

In Class D it was Mitchell Wooler and Tim Barwick who led the way in their Toyota 896 GTS as the all-Mazda 3 Class D was headed by Andrew Jackman, Mark Taubitz and Jamie Westaway who were 50th outright.

The Bathurst 6 Hour has a 9:05am AEST Practice 3 session on Saturday before the two part qualifying in the afternoon. That and the supports will be on SBS One, Fox Sports and Kayo.