Red Bull Ampol Racing Team has got its bid to end the Mustang domination at The Bend Motorsport Park off to the best start by finishing on top in both practice sessions.
The opening session was highlighted by impressive young drivers as Broc Feeney set the pace with a 1m 48.770s to lead Red Bull Ampol Racing Team stablemate and Repco Supercars Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen by 0.144s.
It wasn’t smooth sailing for van Gisbergen after he complained his Holden ZB Commodore was undriveable.
Third was a surprise as Wildcard Zak Best placed his Tickford Racing Ford Mustang in the position ahead of fellow guest driver Jordan Boys in the Image Racing run Holden ZB Commodore.
Following were Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus Motorsport duo Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown, who announced both have committed to the team into the Gen3 era.
David Reynolds in the Penrite Racing Ford Mustang followed in seventh ahead of Chaz Mostert, Anton De Pasquale and Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters.
Van Gisbergen set the pace in second practice, lowering the benchmark to a 1m 48.260s to head De Pasquale by 0.103s.
Waters improved to third from Mostert and Tickford Racing teammate Thomas Randle in the Castrol Mustang completed the top five.
Kostecki continued the Erebus form reversal in sixth as Mark Winterbottom in the IRWIN Racing ZB Commodore headed Feeney, Best and Shell V-Power Racing’s Will Davison.
Just missing the top 10 in the second session were Nick Percat, Lee Holdsworth, Andre Heimgartner, Scott Pye and David Reynolds.
Qualifying for Race 21 of the Repco Supercars Championship at The Bend Motorsport Park begins at 2pm AEST (1:30pm local time).