Will Brown and Jack Le Brocq topped Friday’s Supercars practice sessions in Townsville, while Shane van Gisbergen continues to battle handling and braking issues which plagued him last round in Darwin.
Brown was quickest in Practice 1, a 1:13.9706 early in the 30-minute run enough to keep top spot for the majority of the session. He would be the only competitor to break the 1:14 barrier.
Todd Hazelwood was the first of the newly aero-enhanced Mustangs and was second overall, two-tenths off the pace of Brown following a quick lap on his final run.
Despite facing difficulties, van Gisbergen was third, ahead of teammate Broc Feeney and compatriot Andre Heimgartner.
Championship leader Brodie Kostecki also struggled with a handling issue and faced limited run time as a result, managing only the 11th best time. Matt Payne was one spot behind in twelfth.
Camaro returned to the top of the time sheets in Practice 2 as Le Brocq completed the fastest lap of the day with a 1:13.4320s. His lap was two-tenths quicker than that of second-placed Bryce Fullwood, while Cam Waters was the best of the Mustang contingent in third.
Van Gisbergen continued to battle his car but still managed the fourth best time, while Heimgartner was again fifth in a solid day of running.
Payne also moved up the order and was eighth.
Fresh off last week’s shock NASCAR win,Friday’s session were a reality check for van Gisbergen who said he was disappointed with his cars performance.
“Today didn’t go our way unfortunately,” said the defending champion. “We seem to have the same issues as what we had in Darwin, so instead of trying to utilise our practice sessions to make the car faster, we’re fixing issues which is a real shame, it’s gutting.
“The car is obviously fast, but we’re focusing on errors and trying to make things better instead of focusing on speed, and it’s really puzzling.
“Our qualifying run at the end of the practice session was challenging as well. The car is not handling well at the braking zones and I’m having some steering issues down the straights which isn’t nice. We’ll work on those issues tonight and hopefully make some changes to the car so we can focus on racing rather than issues.”
Supercars returns to action on Saturday with qualifying for the first 250 km race beginning at 12.15 pm (NZ Time). The Top 10 Shootout follows at 2 pm and the race goes green at 4.40 pm.
Image: Triple Eight Race Engineering
