Tickford Racing has hit the ground running in Townsville after Monster Castrol Racing’s Cam Waters led teammate Thomas Randle at the conclusion of the opening practice session.
Waters set a 1m 13.960s to lead Randle by 0.120s, while Repco Supercars Championship leader Will Brown was third 0.201s off the pace.
In what is a potential return to form, the Snowy River Racing Mustang of James Courtney was fourth ahead of Penrite Racing’s Matt Payne to make it four Fords in the top five.
R&J Batteries Racing driver Andre Heimgartner was the leading Brad Jones Racing entry in sixth ahead of last year’s Sunday race winner Anton De Pasquale for Shell V-Power Racing Team and Middy’s Racing’s Bryce Fullwood.
Reigning champion Brodie Kostecki was ninth for Erebus Motorsport and rounding out the 10 was Macauley Jones in the Pizza Hut Racing Camaro.
Team PPQ’s Cameron Hill just missed the top 10, but had limited running due to a steering rack problem and will be back for the second session.
Behind Hill were Jack Le Brocq, Broc Feeney, Mark Winterbottom, Chaz Mostert and David Reynolds as the drivers needed to negotiate a dirty track being it so early in the weekend.
There were no real dramas apart from a couple of spins at Turn 11.
Practice 2 for the Repco Supercars Championship in Townsville is at 3:10pm AEST.