Feeney holds off Mustangs in dramatic practice
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 11 October 2024
Broc Feeney ended up on top in an interrupted practice 3 at Bathurst where a number of drivers came unstuck.
Feeney’s 2:06.7842 ensured he was the lone Camaro among a sea of Mustangs in the top five with Thomas Randle, James Courtney and Matt Payne all within a tenth away.
There were three red flags and two of them were caused by Matt Stone Racing, which faces a tight turnaround ahead of Practice 4.
Dylan O’Keeffe spun the #10 around after finding the tyres at Griffins Bend, but there are bigger concerns for the #4 as Cameron Crick crunched the concrete in the Esses.
Whilst many teams took the chance to perform pit stop practice straight away, with refuelling, plus driver and brake pad changes occurring frequently, there was a hot pace at the top of the leaderboard.
Kostecki and Mostert were the only ones to record a 2m07s time on the opening flying lap, but they were not at the top for long.
Brown, Mostert and Stanaway all responded with purple sectors, but only the WAU driver recorded a 2m06s time.
The Penrite Racing Kiwi kept the foot down, going fastest in all three sectors to go 0.028s clear and snatch P1.
The best of the rest were the Matt Stone Racing Camaros with Percat and Hill completing the top four as the only others within half a second of the leader.
At the 15-minute mark Randle started a push run and became the latest to join the 2m06s club.
His 2:06.8456 was 0.0292s clear of Stanaway as just half a tenth covered the top three.
Courtney and Davison also found a turn of pace to slot into second and fifth respectively.
Courtney’s time was particularly impressive, coming within 0.0086s of the benchmark.
Amid a sea of blue Le Brocq became the only Camaro in the top five at the 20-minute mark when the session started to settle down with race runs preferred.
Whilst the #55 was fast with the new engine fitted, the water pump failed on the out lap for Tyler Everingham.
The team did not believe the car would hit the track again, but the red flag made this possible.
The first off track moment occurred to Garth Tander, who bowled a wide at The Chase, while Cameron McLeod utilised the Hell Corner run off.
However, Cameron Crick was the first to find the fence and brought the red flag out with 23 minutes left.
Crick appeared to have clipped the inside wall at Turn 17, the final right hander of The Esses, which fired the #4 Camaro hard into the outside barrier.
Cameron Crick came undone in the Esses and this was the unfortunate result. Image: Andrew Clarke
The impact was so heavy the car went airborne momentarily before coming to rest at the apex of Forrest’s Elbow.
When the session resumed, Feeney broke the Ford deadlock at the earliest opportunity.
His first lap after the break was 0.0614s clear of Randle’s earlier benchmark, but drivers were denied any further shots thanks to a second red flag.
This one was triggered by Jaxon Evans, who locked up approaching Hell Corner and got beached.
A mini nine-minute qualifying session was in store, but more drama ensured it never happened.
There was extra pain for MSR, as O’Keeffe lost it at Griffins Bend, sliding all the way into the tyres before coming to rest on the kerb.
There were also scares for the #888 wildcard, with Murray stopping halfway up Mountain Straight and needing to the tow truck to get back to the pits.
With practice 4 coming soon at 13.05 AEDT, a number of teams have work to do to make it on track.
2024 Bathurst 1000 Practice 3 results
Image: Peter Norton EPIC Sports Photography
2024 Bathurst 1000
Practice 1: 1: Matt Payne 2:07.2941 2: Cameron Waters +0.0366 3: Will Brown +0.0373
Practice 2: 1: J. Whincup 2:07.4788 2: C. Murray +0.0370 3: J. Ojeda +0.1860
Practice 3: Fri 10.05-11.05 (all drivers)
Practice 4: Fri 13.05-14.05 (all drivers)
Qualifying: Fri 16.15-16.55
Practice 5: Sat 10.05-11.05 (co drivers)
Practice 6: Sat 13.05-14.05 (all drivers)
Top 10 Shootout: Sat 17.05
Warm up: Sun 8.15-8.35
Bathurst 1000: Sun 11.30 (161 laps)
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