Ford star Matthew Payne and Triple Eight veteran Jamie Whincup led the times in the opening day’s session for Sunday’s Bathurst 1000.
The talking point of the day was that Whincup’s colleague, points leader Will Brown, is looking at a difficult weekend after co-driver Scott Pye smashed their Chevrolet Camaro at The Cutting late in the afternoon session.
“Young chap, cold tires …” stated Pye, after triggering the session to be red-flagged.
“I simply lost the rear and it was video game over. I feel bad for the team, they will have a long night. It entered quite difficult however at the end of the day, it was my error. They need to strive now to repair my error.”
Payne looked extremely strong in the early morning session with the very best lap of the day, a 2m07.29 s, leading a Ford 1-2 ahead of Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters. Brown led the Chevrolets in 3rd location ahead of Cameron Hill’s Matt Stone Racing entry.
Matt Payne, Penrite Racing Ford Mustang
Image by: Supercars
Triple Eight Chevrolets topped the afternoon session, specifically for co-drivers, which was postponed and after that interrupted first of all by an oil clean-up from a previous assistance occasion and after that for the safe elimination from the track of what seemed a brown snake at Forrest’s Elbow …
Whincup led a bloc of 5 Chevrolets, however not in the method numerous might have anticipated. Whincup, a four-time Bathurst winner, edged out increasing star Cooper Murray, who is sharing T8’s wildcard entry with veteran Craig Lowndes. Jordan Ojeda was 3rd fastest ahead of Erebus Motorsport colleague Todd Hazelwood and PremiAir Racing’s David Russell.
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It was a wedding day with an early start in the Ford camp, 6 of the Mustangs getting brand-new engines fitted with modified, GT3-based crankshafts; both Dick Johnson Racing and Grove Racing cars and trucks and one each of the Tickford and Walkinshaw Andretti entries.
The modifications were essential after a rash of unanticipated current crank failures that resulted in a global search to protect the brand-new Mexican-made systems and a rushed 1000km screening program.
The WAU group had an obstacle on the track too, with Lee Holdsworth missing out on the majority of the last session when the Ford he is showing Chaz Mostert was parked with an engine issue.
The Supercars will go back to the Mount Panorama track on Friday for 2 one-hour session, the very first at 10:05 am Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time, and after that at 1:05 pm. The critical 40-minute certifying session, which will set the grid for the 11th to 26th fastest cars and trucks, is because of begin at 4:15 pm.