Supercars drivers have hit the track for the first time of what’s expected to be a wet and wild Bathust 1000 in Thursday morning’s Practice 1. And the first session delivered plenty of drama, with TWO red flags in an incident-filled opening to the Great Race.
Will Davison went fastest by .01 of a second with a 2:04.3691s in his Shell V-Power Racing Team over JAmes Golding of Premi-Air Racing, with the top half-dozen drivers delivering very close times.
But a host of top contenders found themselves in trouble in ‘pretty scary’ conditions, despite the rain staying away in what might be the only dry session of the weekend. Shane van Gisbergen and Anton de Pasquale were two who copped major incidents, while Cameron Waters and Jake Kostecki both suffered crashes on the final corner.
The first session enabled all drivers to hit the track, with another practice session scheduled for co-drivers at 3.55pm AEDT.
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Rain has fallen consistently in Bathurst and is scheduled to continue over the next four days, setting the stage for an eventful edition of the great race.
Erebus driver Brodie Kostecki said during the first practice session: “It’s pretty sort of scary out there at the moment, to be honest.”
“We don’t know what we’re going to get on Sunday,” he said of the conditions, adding he had to “change my dacks” after a couple of near-misses on track.
Two-time runner-up Cameron Waters saw the session red flagged after just 25 minutes when he ditched his car into the dirt at the final corner.
After being towed out, he drove backwards to pit lane entry, and pulled a cheeky flick spin across the grass to return to the garage – with driving in the reverse direction a move which required special permission from race control.
Co-driver James Moffat joked of his Tickford Racing teammate’s early crash: “It’s better that it happens now than on Sunday!”
Despite concerns from his team that the car would struggle in the looming wet conditions, he added: “I think we can win it, both wet or dry. You can’t control the weather so just get after it.”
His teammate Jake Kostecki found the wall at the same corner with three minutes left in the session, forcing another red flag and ending the session early.
That pair weren’t the only ones to struggle.
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Returning four-time champion Craig Lowndes was forced to utilise the escape road in his wildcard entry 888.
Jack Smith in the Brad Jones Racing number four struggled with early undertray shaking, with the entire front end wobbling – even under acceleration.
“That’s bad,” Mark Skaife said on Fox Sports.
“I’ve never seen it that bad!” Neil Crompton agreed.
Team boss Brad Jones said: “Splitter flap – It’s one of those things you need to get a handle on pretty quick.
“We’ve packed the front of the splitter pretty tight. Full of two-pack foam, put some spacing in and glued them in. You’re never going to get away with that in a race. It’s something we need to get in and try and get on top with pretty quickly and we can.”
“How do you know? It’s one of those things. This has been a problem we’ve had in the past so we’ve got ways of curing it.”
He added they would first replace the splitter otherwise consider fresh foam and spacing, saying: “I’m quite comfortable we’ll get it fixed.”
Macauley Jones told his team he was battling with understeer as he narrowly avoided a run-off, but made it to seventh before the session was halted. Team boss Brad Jones said conditions suited his team.
Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Shane van Gisbergen made a lucky escape across the top of the mountain, slamming into the left-hand wall but avoiding a ricochet crash, before limping his battered car back to the pits.
Mark Skaife said on Fox Sports: “He got away with that, he damaged the car…but that would normally either destroy it on the left hand side or ricochet to the right side fence. Wow.”
And Anton de Pasquale also copped a full spin – somehow avoiding the wall with a neat piece of acceleration half-way through the rotation.
Neil Crompton said on Fox Sports: “The van Gisbergen and de Pasquale moments, they could have very serious consequences.”
The current series leader and reigning Supercars champion Van Gisbergen told Fox Sports: “I knew the wheel would be bent, but I think the suspension is okay.”
“It’s tough. I just wanted to have a clean session one so I’m pretty pissed at myself for doing that.”
WET WEATHER TO GIVE ‘DOZEN’ CONTENDERS
Supercars legend Mark Skaife believes the conditions will make for one of the most open Bathurst 1000s in years.
“When you add water, we’re predicting rain for most of the weekend, what you do is double the candidates in terms of who can win this,” Skaife said on the Fox Sports coverage.
“I think if you come in as a dry race there’s probably five or six combinations that are red hot fast. But there’s some mudlarks. When you add the water you add a heap of blokes, you add Craig Lowndes, David Reynolds, you add Andre Heimgartner, Will Brown, Brodie Kostecki, even Richie Stanaway is excellent in the rain.
“So if you add those mudlarks and you then look at the combinations .. there’s probably a “dozen that can win this weekend.”
Every session of the event will be broadcast live on Foxtel (Fox Sports 503) and streamed on Kayo.
FULL SCHEDULE (all times AEDT)
THURSDAY
11am -12pm: Practice 1 (all drivers)
3.55pm – 4.55pm: Practice 2 (co-drivers)
FRIDAY
10.10am – 11.10am: Practice 3 (all drivers)
1pm-2pm: Supercars Practice 4 (all drivers)
4.15pm – 4.55pm: Qualifying
SATURDAY
10.20am – 11.20am: Practice 5 (co-drivers)
1pm – 2pm: Supercars Practice 6 (all drivers)
5.05pm: Top-10 Shootout
SUNDAY
8am – 8.20am: Supercars warm-up
8.40am – 9am: Drivers’ Parade
11.15am: Race start (161 laps)
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