Feeney fires pre-Shootout statement
Practice is complete at Bathurst with Broc Feeney on top, but Chaz Mostert is not happy after a close call.
Feeney fired a 2:04.9698, a number that no one else could match, with Mostert best of the rest more than a tenth adrift.
However, the WAU driver was a disgruntled figure post-session, having been lucky to avoid a monumental crash with Will Brown.
Mostert was close to Thomas Randle and veered to the inside to allow space for the Tickford driver.
However, this almost put him on a collision course with Brown, who was coming in hot and quick reactions from the reigning champion avoided chaos, but only after the #1 endured a wild spin.
Mostert was not happy, having an animated chat with Randle in the pits before apologising to Brown.
“I think I got ‘Randeled’ there to start my lap,” he said.
“Randle was doing his own thing and not thinking about everyone else, nearly putting myself and Brown in a big shunt.
“Bit of a shame. Don’t know what information he is getting feed to him, but he needs to be conscious of others.”
The session did not get an ideal start for Grove Racing as a routine pit stop practice went wrong and forced the #26 Mustang into the garage for six minutes.
They were not alone with Triple Eight suffering front right rattle gun dramas.
Meanwhile, some of the Shootout runners did a cold one-lap simulation for what was to come.
Once again, Kostecki was in a league of his own, with his 2:05.4176 a commanding seven-tenths clear of Percat, who did the same run.
Only Holdsworth, who pushed Percat, and Golding were within a second of Kostecki across the first 10 minutes.
Unfortunately, the corner with his name in it struck again for Murray.
He was on a hot lap, but ran wide and found the dirt on the corner exit at the final turn and lost time.
Golding was the luckiest driver of the session, saving a wild ride through the Esses.
He got unsettled going over the rise, found the grass, and only just caught it in time to avoid the looming concrete.
Later in the session, he also had a moment, tapping the wall on the exit of Forest’s.
Both Boys and Reynolds had a close call running side by side through Griffin’s and after a small moment, they carried on.
Lowndes ‘ battle at The Chase continued, with his third off for the weekend and this time he was lucky to avoid the sand.
At Matt Stone Racing, the #35 wildcard filed the least amount of laps across the first half of the session after reporting a long brake pedal.
It was not until the second half of a session that someone came within half a second of Kostecki.
Mostert reduced the deficit to four tenths, setting the scene for more Shootout simulations in the final 20 minutes.
WAU teammate Wood followed, going purple across the top of the mountain to get two-tenths away after a small mistake at the final turn.
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Randle also found slightly more speed, but Kostecki’s two-tenth margin remained.
It took 50 minutes for the DJR driver to be knocked off, and that man was Waters.
He blitzed the second and third sectors to find an extra tenth and lower the benchmark to a 2:05.3052.
Mostert was also on a hot lap and posted a purple first sector, but kept his cards close to his chest by backing out.
These runs were interrupted by a bizarre red flag for a stray fan left on Payne’s Mustang that fell off at pit exit.
The stoppage created a perfect six-minute window for Shootout runners to stage a practice one-lap dash.
But amid the warm-up process, Brown and Mostert almost had an aeroplane crash.
Mostert was on a preparation lap on approach to Murray’s and veered to the inside to avoid Randle, but went into the path of Brown instead.
The Triple Eight driver reacted quickly enough to avoid contact, but could not stop himself from spinning.
Both cars were lucky to avoid a crash that could have destroyed their weekend.
Mostert carried on and started a lap good enough for second best.
However, Feeney was flying and became the first driver to record a 2m04s time of the day.
Murray made a late charge to fourth to emerge ahead of Kostecki, while Wood, De Pasquale, Payne and Allen all nailed their final laps to sneak into the top 10.
The #5 wildcard of Rylan Gray and Lochie Dalton had a solid session to be 17th.
All eyes now turn to the Top 10 Shootout at 17.05 AEDT.
Image: Mark Horsburgh
2025 Bathurst 1000 Practice 6 results
1: B.Feeney/J.Whincup 2:04.9698
2: C.Mostert/F.Coulthard +0.1463
3: C.Waters/M.Winterbottom +0.3354
4: Cooper Murray +0.3975
5: B.Kostecki/T.Hazelwood +0.4478
6: T.Randle/J.Moffat +0.5275
7: R.Wood/J.Ojeda +0.5326
8: A.De Pasquale/H.Jones +0.7789
9: M.Payne/G.Tander +0.7985
10: K.Allen/D.Wood +0.9069
11: N.Percat/T.Slade +1.2237
12: D.Reynolds/L.Holdsworth +1.2688
13: J.Golding/D.Russell +1.2783
14: J.Courtney/J.Perkins +1.4177
15: W.Davison/T.D’Alberto +1.4655
16: C.Hill/C.McLeod +1.5587
17: R.Gray/L.Dalton +1.6832
18: J.Evans/J.Smith +1.8345
19: W.Brown/S.Pye +1.9029
20: B.Fullwood/B.Vaughan +2.0218
21: M.Jones/J.Boys +2.0582
22: C.Lowndes/Z.Bates +2.0900
23: C.Crick/A.Seton +2.1799
24: A.Cameron/Z.Best +2.2828
25: J.Le Brocq/J.Hughes +2.2947
26: R.Stanaway/N.Morris +2.3341
27: A.Heimgartner/D.Fraser +2.7159
2025 Bathurst 1000 schedule
Thursday, October 9
PRACTICE 1 1: R. Wood/J. Ojeda 2:05.1029 2: A. De Pasquale/H. Jones +0.4236 3: K. Allen/D. Wood +0.8132
PRACTICE 2 1: Scott Pye/W. Brown 2:06.8395 2: David Russell/J. Golding +0.1461 3: Tony D’Alberto/W. Davison +0.6345
Friday, October 10
PRACTICE 3 1: B.Feeney/J.Whincup 2:04.9763 2: R.Wood/J.Ojeda +0.0341 3: W.Brown/S.Pye +0.0784
QUALIFYING 1 Brodie Kostecki 2:04.0307 2 Broc Feeney +0.0064 3 Ryan Wood +0.0560
Saturday, October 11
PRACTICE 5 (co-drivers only) 10:05 AM – 11:05 AM
PRACTICE 6 1:10 PM – 2:10 PM
TOP TEN SHOOTOUT 5:05 PM – 5:50 PM
Bathurst Day, October 12
WARM UP 8:30 AM – 8:50 AM
THE GREAT RACE 11:45 AM (161 laps)
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