Drama at The Bend: Whincup runs into Pye during safety car simulation, Moffatt fastest

The opening round of the 2025 Enduro Cup at The Bend Motorsport Park continued on Saturday with the co-drivers taking centre stage in Practice 4, a session that combined new safety car procedures, early drama, and an ultra-competitive timesheet that ultimately saw James Moffat set the pace.

As with the main drivers in Friday’s Practice 3, the co-drivers began their 30-minute session with a safety car simulation.

The exercise was aimed at familiarising drivers with recent regulation changes, including pit lane now closing under the safety car once the 80km/h speed limiters are engaged.

Another key modification is the introduction of “slow zones” at certain sections of the circuit where an incident clean-up or recovery may still be taking place, where drivers must re-activate their limiters while being free to race at full speed outside of the restricted area.

The drill was not without incident. Jamie Whincup made contact with Scott Pye while the field circulated under simulation, striking the rear of Pye’s car and damaging both entries.

The #1 Pye/Brown entry sustained significant damage to the drive axle and lower wishbone, forcing it to retire early, while Whincup’s #88 car escaped with minor damage and rejoined the session. Stewards later confirmed they would investigate the clash.

Talking to Speedcafe, Whincup took responsibility for the incident.

“I purely made a mistake. I’m owning the mistake,” said Whincup

“Engineer told me all the right things, he said ‘P3, out of Turn 3’.

“In my mind, the line was a lot further out of Turn 3 than what I thought. I did the track walk, knew where it was and could see it on the map. I’m fully aware of where it is, but in my mind it was further than I thought. Scotty hit the brakes and I just hit the back of him. I didn’t quite swerve well enough

“To put a positive on a bad situation I’m glad it happened in practice, rather than in the race, and I’ve learned from it. I was trying to be as close to Scotty as I could. I was trying to simulate a real life race situation.

“To make it easier in practice I could have just dropped back, and it wouldn’t have happened, but I was trying to simulate a race situation where you had to pull up behind somebody.”

Once the green flag returned, Jack Perkins was the first to lay down a marker with a 1:52.199, only to be narrowly beaten by Aaron Seton’s 1:52.071.

Declan Fraser, co-driving with Kiwi Andre Heimgartner, quickly moved into third on his opening lap, while fellow endurance stalwart Garth Tander, who partners Kiwi Matt Payne, slotted into the top four.

Fabian Coulthard, the New Zealander sharing with Chaz Mostert, impressed immediately. On his first flyer, he went purple in Sector 1 before clocking a 1:52.137, placing him 10th. He improved further on his second lap, jumping to second with a 1:51.554, just 0.040s behind Seton.

The Tickford Racing wildcard entry of Rylan Gray surged to the top with a 1:51.259 just inside the final 22 minutes.

Jayden Ojeda, who teams up with Kiwi rookie Ryan Wood, also climbed to second before being shuffled back as the timesheets tightened.

Lee Holdsworth then delivered a 1:50.925 to lead the session, only for James Moffat to go quicker still, producing a 1:50.738 with less than two minutes on the clock. That lap secured him the fastest time of the session, edging out Holdsworth by 0.186s.

Notably, all three wildcard co-drivers featured in the top five as the clock wound down — Gray third, Zach Bates fourth, and Seton fifth, underlining the depth of talent across the expanded Enduro Cup field.

Fraser (Heimgartner) ended the session sixth with a 1:51.279, just over half a second from Moffat’s benchmark. Ojeda (Wood) secured seventh before settling in eighth, while Coulthard (Mostert) closed in 10th despite his strong early pace. Tander (Payne) wound up 16th, and Morris (Stanaway) was classified 18th.

The Bend’s endurance weekend now moves towards the final practice session of the weekend before the all-important qualifying sessions and Sunday’s 500km race, where the new safety car rules, the performance of wildcard entries, and the resilience of co-driver pairings could all prove decisive.

Practice 4 Full Results:

Header Image: Supercars