Matt Payne has finished Friday’s practice sessions fastest at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, edging out championship rival Broc Feeney in a closely contested second session.
Payne set the benchmark time of 1:08.501 in the closing stages of Practice 2 to finish just 0.073 seconds clear of Feeney, while PremiAir Racing’s Jayden Ojeda celebrated his one-year anniversary with the team, setting the pace in the opening session.
Ojeda proved a surprise pacesetter in Practice 1, recording a 1:08.798 lap to lead the field by just under two tenths of a second, with teammate Cooper Murray also showing encouraging speed.
The opening 25-minute session saw several of the seven remaining Finals drivers immediately push towards the front, with Brodie Kostecki setting an early benchmark of 1:08.962.
While fellow title contenders Cam Waters, Will Brown and Feeney spent the early stages of the session comfortably inside the top 10, Chaz Mostert was having issues with the brakes on his #1 Mobil 1 Optus Toyota.
Championship leader Payne was initially down in 21st before working his way into the top five, while Thomas Randle, James Golding, David Reynolds and Ryan Wood also featured prominently.
Mostert eventually moved inside the top 10 but continued to report gearbox issues, which would prove a recurring problem throughout the day’s running.
There was also trouble for Matt Stone Racing, with Jack Le Brocq missing the entire opening session after the team discovered the incorrect drop gear ratio had been installed in his #4 Sherrin Rentals Camaro.
Ojeda ultimately secured the fastest time of Practice 1 ahead of Kostecki and Randle.
The field returned shortly after for the second 25-minute session with Payne and Feeney immediately establishing themselves as the drivers to beat, with Payne initially setting the early benchmark with a 1:08.7069s lap before improving further later in the session.
Cam Waters moved into third inside the final 10 minutes, while Aaron Cameron and Randle also worked their way into the top five.
Le Brocq made an immediate impression on his return to the track, moving inside the top 10 and looking capable of challenging for the fastest time before a kerb strike at Turn 7 interrupted his progress.
Several Finals contenders continued to struggle for outright pace, with Mostert, Brown and Anton De Pasquale all sitting well down the order at different stages of the session.
Ojeda also returned to the front in the closing stages, briefly moving into second, while Jarrod Hughes and Andre Heimgartner made their way into the top five.
However, Payne eventually secured the fastest time of the day, edging Feeney by just seven hundredths of a second.
Cooper Murray continued PremiAir Racing’s impressive Friday with third, just 0.0825 seconds off the ultimate pace, while Heimgartner and Golding completed the top five.
Ryan Wood finished sixth, ahead of De Pasquale, who recovered to seventh, while Brown was ninth and Kostecki 10th.
The two sessions also provided teams with an opportunity to assess both the Soft and Super Soft tyre compounds, with an even split across the field as drivers and engineers gathered valuable information ahead of the weekend’s racing.
Boost Mobile Qualifying gets underway at 11:20am AEDT.