The 2024 Supercars enduro season is officially underway, with Tickford’s Cam Waters leading the way in the first of three practice sessions on Friday.
Waters set a best lap of 1m 08.7478s, a time only three-tenths off the practice or qualifying record, to better championship contender Chaz Mostert by 0.1445 seconds. His best lap came on his 16th and final flyer.
The 30-minute session for all drivers saw several teams split the time between primary and co-drivers.
Red Bull began proceedings with Scott Pye and Jamie Whincup in their Camaros, while Fiore started in place of Jaxon Evans and Jordan Boys in place of Macauley Jones at BJR.
Power steering issues in the opening minutes cost Matt Payne 10 minutes of track time, but the Kiwi driver returned to complete 12 laps over the final 18 minutes to go 21st fastest. His co-driver, Garth Tander, did not get behind the wheel.
David Reynolds shared his car with Warren Luff to go third overall, just 0.1834s off the leading time.
Thomas Randle ran the entire session to go fourth fastest and make for two Tickford entries in the top four, while Mark Winterbottom and Michael Caruso shared the #18 Team 18 Camaro to go fifth overall, with the best lap set with the former at the wheel.
Andre Heimgartner was the best of five Kiwi full-timers in sixth, three-tenths behind Waters. Heimgartner split the session with co-driver Declan Fraser.
Jack Le Brocq, Nick Percat/Dylan O’Keeffe, Will Brown/Scott Pye, and Scott Pye completed the top ten, respectively.
Ryan Wood ran the entire session to finish 11th fastest, Richie Stanaway was 18th, and the Jaxon Evans and Dean Fiore pairing was 25th.
Fabian Coulthard, the sole Kiwi co-driver in the field, did not get behind the wheel.
Red Bull’s Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup shared the #88 Camaro for 17th but focussed on long runs to complete 20 laps, the most of any pairing.
Supercars return for a co-driver-only practice session at 2.45 pm NZST before practice 3 for all drivers concludes Friday’s proceedings at 5.40 pm.
Sandown 500 Practice 1 Results
| 1st | Waters/Moffat | 1:08.7478 |
| 2nd | Mostert/Holdsworth | +0.1445 |
| 3rd | Reynolds/Luff | +0.1834 |
| 4th | Randle/Everingham | +0.2460 |
| 5th | Winterbottom/Caruso | +0.2607 |
| 6th | Heimgartner/Fraser | +0.3264 |
| 7th | Le Brocq/ Ojeda | +0.4497 |
| 8th | Percat/O’Keeffe | +0.4571 |
| 9th | Brown/Pye | +0.5062 |
| 10th | Hill/Crick | +0.5185 |
| 11th | Wood/Coulthard | +0.5846 |
| 12th | De Pasquale/D’Alberto | +0.6583 |
| 13th | Slade/McLeod | +0.6849 |
| 14th | Love/Cameron | +0.6910 |
| 15th | Kostecki/Hazelwood | +0.7268 |
| 16th | Davison/Allen | +0.7717 |
| 17th | Feeney/Whincup | +0.8298 |
| 18th | Stanaway/Wood | +0.8804 |
| 19th | Jones/Boys | +0.9373 |
| 20th | Courtney/Perkins | +0.9383 |
| 21st | Payne/Tander | +0.9422 |
| 22nd | Lowndes/Murray | +0.9637 |
| 23rd | Golding/Russell | +0.9794 |
| 24th | Fullwood/Robotham | +0.9986 |
| 25th | Evans/Fiore | +1.0408 |
| 26th | Chada/Vaughan | +1.9367 |
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