A Scott Pye crash brought an early end to this evening’s co-driver only practice session at the Bathurst 1000, with his Red Bull teammate Jamie Whincup atop the timing sheets at the time of the incident.
Whincup, who joins Broc Feeney for The Great R,ace set a 2:07.4788 as the fastest of the session, just 0.0370 seconds ahead of the impressive Cooper Murray in the Triple Eight wildcard entry he is sharing with Craig Lowndes.
The start of the one-hour session was delayed due to oil on the track down Conrod Straight. While that was being address, a venomous Eastern Brown Snake found it’s way onto the circuit and needed to be caught at Forrest’s Elbow.
Proceedings began over half an hour late, and once they did, ran uninterupted for 42 minutes. Warren Luff (David Reynolds) survived a spin and near miss with the wall early, while several other drivers ran long at Conrod, but the session remained incident free until Pye ran wide at The Cutting, losing the rear of the #87 Camaro he is sharing with championship leader Will Brown and slamming into the outside wall.
The Sandown 500 winning car suffered considerable damage to its right side, with particular regard to the right-rear wheel. Race control ended the session on the red flag.
Whincup’s effort stood as the fastest time from Murray, with Jayden Ojeda (Jack Le Brocq), Todd Hazelwood (Brodie Kostecki), and David Russell (James Golding) making for a Camaro top five sweep.
Aaron Cameron (Aaron Love) was the fastest Mustang in sixth, ahead of Tyler Everingham (Thomas Randle), Tony D’Alberto (Anton D’Pasquale), Declan Fraser (Andre Heimgartner), and Pye, who completed the top ten.
Garth Tander, who joins Matt Payne at Penrite Racing, was 11th, while his teammate, and Richie Stanaway’s driving partner Dale Wood was 14th.
The sole Kiwi co-driver in the field, Fabian Coulthard, who joins Ryan Wood at Walkinshaw Andretti United, was 17th, while Jaxon Evans’s co-driver Dean Fiore was 25th.
Lee Holdsworth, partnering title contender Chaz Mostert, only completed three laps after WAU found an issue with the #25 Mustang’s exhaust valve. He had taken to the track no more than 10 minutes before the red flag.
Supercars return for two practice sessions on Friday, before qualifying at 6.15 pm NZST.
Bathurst 1000 Practice 2 Results (Co-drivers Only)
| 1st | Whincup (Feeney) | 2:07.4788 |
| 2nd | Murray (Lowndes) | +00.0370 |
| 3rd | Ojeda (Le Brocq) | +00.1860 |
| 4th | Hazelwood (Kostecki) | +00.4741 |
| 5th | Russell (Golding) | +00.5366 |
| 6th | Cameron (Love) | +00.6772 |
| 7th | Everingham (Randle) | +00.6836 |
| 8th | D’Alberto (De Pasquale) | +00.6999 |
| 9th | Fraser (Heimgartner) | +00.8051 |
| 10th | Pye (Brown) | +00.8861 |
| 11th | Tander (Payne) | +00.9374 |
| 12th | Moffat (Waters) | +01.2207 |
| 13th | O’Keeffe (Percat) | +01.2742 |
| 14th | Wood (Stanaway) | +01.2831 |
| 15th | Holdsworth (Mostert) | +01.3525 |
| 16th | Allen (Davison) | +01.3944 |
| 17th | Coulthard (Wood) | +01.5195 |
| 18th | Crick (Hill) | +01.6108 |
| 19th | Luff (Reynolds) | +01.6310 |
| 20th | Caruso (Winterbottom) | +01.7205 |
| 21st | Vaughan (Chada) | +01.7876 |
| 22nd | Boys (Jones) | +01.8519 |
| 23rd | Perkins (Courtney) | +02.0681 |
| 24th | Robotham (Fullwood) | +02.4681 |
| 25th | Fiore (Evans) | +02.5163 |
| 26th | McLeod (Slade) | +02.6071 |
Header Image: Supercars
