The 2025 Supercars Championship roared back into action this weekend with the Ipswich Super 440 at Queensland Raceway, making its first appearance on the calendar since 2019.
With just four rounds remaining, the five New Zealanders on the grid are looking to build valuable momentum heading into the endurance season.
Since Supercars last raced here, Queensland Raceway has undergone extensive upgrades. This weekend also marks the Gen3 cars’ competitive debut at the venue, though a handful of teams have tested here since the new era began.
A 26-car field lines up, including two wildcards: 2024 Super2 champion and current series contender Zach Bates in the No. 888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Camaro, and second-generation racer Cameron Crick in the No. 35 Matt Stone Racing Camaro.
Bates sits sixth in the 2025 Super2 standings with Eggleston Motorsport, while Crick returns for his second wildcard appearance of the season after debuting in Sydney.
The opening 30-minute practice session was barely two minutes old when an oil bottle dislodged from the underside of Jaxon Evans’ No. 12 Brad Jones Racing Camaro, bringing out a red flag. The debris was swiftly recovered, and running soon resumed.
Broc Feeney set the early benchmark at 1:09.416, with Cameron Hill, Brodie Kostecki, Anton De Pasquale, and Kiwi Richie Stanaway all within two-tenths. Bates impressed immediately, going second-fastest on his fifth lap, just 0.035 seconds shy of Feeney.
De Pasquale briefly took over at the top with a 1:09.404, underlining how close the field was, only two-tenths covered the top 10 at that point, and six-tenths separated the top 20 with 13 minutes to go.
Ryan Wood was the quickest Kiwi in sixth, followed by Stanaway (8th), Andre Heimgartner (9th), Evans (11th), and Matt Payne (24th), the latter still within eight-tenths of the pace.
In the closing stages, Crick surged to fourth, narrowly ahead of fellow wildcard Bates by an almost immeasurable 0.0012 seconds.
Wood continued to lead the Kiwi charge, eventually placing seventh overall, 0.077 seconds clear of Stanaway, who slipped to 11th.
Feeney ultimately topped the session with a 1:09.207, two-tenths clear of De Pasquale.
The final top 10 was: Feeney, De Pasquale, Hill, Crick, Bates, Will Brown, Wood, Kostecki, Chaz Mostert, and James Courtney, remarkably, all within four-tenths of a second. The entire field was covered by just eight-tenths of a second.
Tickford Racing and Grove Racing appeared to struggle, with Cameron Waters 20th, Thomas Randle 23rd, Payne 19th, and Kai Allen 24th.
The final Kiwi results were: Wood 7th, Stanaway 11th, Heimgartner 12th, Evans 13th, and Payne 19th.
Practice 2 gets underway later today at 4:20pm NZST.
Header Image: Jessica Barnes / Blissful Photography
