In what was a wet first practice session to open the final round of the Repco Supercars Championship in Adelaide, Chaz Mostert has topped the timesheets in the Mobil 1 Optus Racing Ford Mustang.
Times lowered towards the end of the session as the track condition slowly improved as Mostert set a 1m 28.614s to go fastest from two New Zealanders in the form of lead Camaro Andre Heimgartner for R&J Batteries and Grove Racing’s Matt Payne.
Blue smoke was visible from behind Mostert’s Mustang, but it didn’t affect him during the session as there were no other dramas. James Courtney did nearly hit the wall at Turn 8.
Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus driver Will Brown was fourth from the Castrol Racing Mustang of Thomas Randle, Mostert’s teammate Nick Percat, the Shell V-Power Racing Team duo of Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison, championship leader Brodie Kostecki, while James Courtney completed the top 10 in the Snowy River Racing entry.
Kostecki’s title protagonist Shane van Gisbergen failed to do much running in the conditions after bravely swapping to slicks and was 22nd as he was joined at the back by the Team 18 pair led by Scott Pye in 24th.
Just missing the top 10 were James Golding, Cam Waters after a small off-track excursion, David Reynolds, Bryce Fullwood and Tim Slade.
Van Gisbergen’s teammate Broc Feeney was 16th.
Practice 2 follows tomorrow at 12:35pm ACDT (1:05pm AEDT) and qualifying commences at 5:35pm ACDT (6:05pm AEDT).