Will Brown fastest in Darwin Supercars practice

The Repco Supercars Championship leader set a 1:06.4153s in his #87 Triple Eight Race Engineering Camaro in the final two minutes of the hour-long session at Hidden Valley Raceway.

He pipped PremiAir Racing’s James Golding by 0.0156s, with Erebus Motorsport’s Jack Le Brocq third and Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner fourth in the R&J Batteries Camaro.

The only Ford driver in the top six was Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters, fifth on a 1:06.5167s which was 0.1014s off the pace.

Pit exit opened at 11:35 local time and Mark Winterbottom (#18 DeWalt Camaro) was fastest after the first flyers on a 1:06.7715s, before Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Mustang) moved to top spot on a 1:06.6282s next time around.

Meanwhile, Brodie Kostecki was back in the pits after his #1 Erebus Motorsport Camaro had dropped a cylinder, with his crew changing a coil pack.

He re-entered the track with 20 minutes elapsed in the session and rolled out a string of mid- to high-1:07s laps to sit 22nd once his first run proper was done.

Perth ‘round winner’ Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) crept up to eighth with a 1:06.9571s at the halfway mark but, aside from that, there was little happening on the timing screen.

The main action was at Turn 1, where James Courtney (#7 Snowy River Caravans Mustang), then Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) and Brown, all had fairly innocuous visits to the run-off area.

Rookie Jaxon Evans then shot up from the very bottom of the timing screen to fourth with a 1:06.8648s in the #12 SCT Logistics Camaro.

With 20 minutes to go, Nick Percat (#10 Bendix Camaro) crept up two spots to third with a 1:06.7632s, pipping Waters by 0.0313s.

Given qualifying for the first race of the weekend takes place this afternoon, the switch to new super soft tyres slowly began with around 10 minutes remaining in the session.

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Le Brocq (#9 Tyrepower Camaro) moved to third from 14th with a 1:06.7547s before Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro) jumped all the way from 19th to third with a 1:06.6962s.

Golding (#31 Nulon Camaro) went fastest when he set a 1:06.4309s and Waters took over second place on a 1:06.5167s.

Brown usurped them with a 1:06.4153s, before Le Brocq moved back to third on a 1:06.4671s and Heimgartner (#8 Camaro) climbed to fourth with a 1:06.4729s, prior to the chequered flag.

Waters ended up fifth, from Winterbottom on a 1:06.5447s and Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Mustang) on a 1:06.5548s.

Payne was classified eighth by virtue of his first run, from Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang) and Macauley Jones (#96 Pizza Hut Camaro).

Feeney wound up 11th, Mostert 16th on a 1:06.8560s, and Kostecki 17th on a 1:06.8570s.

Triple Eight’s Supercheap Auto wildcard entry was classified 24th in the hands of Cooper Murray (#888 Camaro), who went as quick as a 1:07.1453s.

Qualifying for Race 11 of the season starts this afternoon at 14:35 local time/15:05 AEST.

Results: Practice 1