Brown tops tight Supercars practice
The heat is already on at the Darwin Triple Crown with Will Brown leading a very tight opening Supercars practice session.
Amid a late flurry of glory runs, Brown emerged on top with a 1:06.4153, which eclipsed PremiAir Nulon Racing’s James Golding by 0.0156s.
In fact the top four also featuring Jack Le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner was covered by just half a tenth.
Cameron Waters was the leading Ford in fifth, while Matt Payne was at the top of the timesheets for most of the clean hour-long session but dropped to eighth by the end.
Whilst there were no incidents and only two offs at Turn 1, Brodie Kostecki battled engine issues, losing 20 minutes and ended up 17th.
Payne, Mark Winterbotton and Waters showed strong speed early with less than two tenths covering the trio
The gap was especially tight at the top with just 0.0083s separating Payne and Winterbottom with the #19 Mustang on top with a 1:06.6282.
The likes of Nick Percat and Heimgartner also showed pace to be two tenths away and in the top five.
A total of 23 of the 25 cars went out of the pits straight away aside from rookie Cooper Murray and reigning champion Kostecki
Murray got his first laps in the #888 Supercheap Auto Camaro at the seven minute mark, but the #1 Camaro was still stuck in the garage.
The Erebus Motorsport crew, plus KRE Engines’ Brad McNamara were working under the bonnet with the new engine on seven cylinders.
It was not until the 21-minute mark before Kostecki finally left the lane and the first flying lap was good enough for 23rd.
Local hero Bryce Fullwood lost his rear coming out of Turn 1, but held on.
James Courtney could not avoid firing off on the entry to the opening left-handed hairpin and utilised the run off. He was soon followed by former teammate Waters.
After 40 minutes the top three was finally broken by Percat, who snuck ahead of Waters.
Kostecki also got out of shape at Turn 1 and raised his hand in frustration before rising five spots to 18th.
Inside the final 10 minutes teams turned their attention from race runs to qualifying simulations and the times started tumbling.
Le Brocq made the first move, jumping from 14th to third, only to be displaced by Feeney, who came within 0.0680s of Payne.
The #88 then set a purple first sector only to box at the end of the lap, while Kostecki snuck into the top 10.
Payne’s grip on P1 was ended by Golding, who lowered the benchmark to 1:06.4309 as both Waters and Randle also went faster than the #19.
However, Brown also had great pace and eclipsed Golding with a 1:06.4153 with a minute to go.
Le Brocq and Heimgartner then fired in late laps to make it an all Camaro top four.
At the death Davison jumped to ninth to knock Feeney out of the top 10 that was completed by Macauley Jones.
Attention now turns to qualifying which will decide grid positions 11-25 coming up this afternoon.
Darwin Triple Crown Supercars Practice 1 results
Darwin Triple Crown (ACST)
Friday, June 14
11.35 Practice 1
14.35 Qualifying
Saturday, June 15
9.35 Practice 2
11.35 Top 10 Shootout
15.10 Race 11 (48 laps)
Sunday, June 16
10.25 Qualifying
11.35 Top 10 Shootout
15.10 Race 12 (48 laps)
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Podcast: SVG goes back to back
Shane van Gisbergen has gone back-to-back with a win in Sonoma, while his antipodean mates – Will Brown and Cam Waters – had mixed debuts in the NASCAR Cup Series… but both showed enough to stay on the radar or the US teams looking for the next Giz?
Plus, we’ve got all the latest news on Supercars, F1, IndyCar, and whatever else came to our minds at the time. We also look at the Darwin Supercars and the hypercars at Le Mans for the 24-hour race.
Listen to our latest episode on your podcast app of choice or here
