Day 1 of Supercars action at Bathurst has wrapped up, with two hour-long practice sessions for Supercars at the mountain; one for all drivers, and the second for co-drivers only.
Not only was the first event for the new Gen 3 Supercar at The Mountain; but the event is also the first to use the Dunlop Soft Tyre at The Mountain. The cars looked visibly more difficult to handle in the faster corners over the top of the mountain, while on-board cameras revealed that drivers had to lift off the throttle heading through the Chase.
The first practice session of the weekend kicked off in cool and overcast conditions and ran mostly trouble-free for all competitors. After a brief flurry of quick laps early in the session, teams largely focussed on figuring out the car and allowing long stints to the main driver to set a baseline performance for the weekend. All 28 cars started with the main driver, except for the #31 Nulon Racing Camaro – Dylan O’Keeffe taking the session – and the #19 Penrite Racing Mustang, with Kevin Estre being given the honours.
It was the Erebus Motorsport Camaros that were the early pace setters, immediately throwing down the gauntlet for the rest of the field to chase. Will Brown set a 2:07.665 in the #9 Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus Camaro on the first time of asking, with team-mate and championship leader Brodie Kostecki bettering it a lap later, setting a 2:06.072. That time would stand for the first half of the session, as drivers began to get a handle on the Gen 3 car on the Soft tyres at The Mountain.
Just after the halfway point, Will Brown improved again, putting the #9 Camaro to the top of the time sheets with a 2:05.965. That time would stand for the rest of the session, but only just; Matt Payne in the #19 Penrite Racing Mustang put together a lap in the final 10 minutes, slotting in only 0.007 behind Brown, also slotting into the 2:05s. Looking at last year’s Practice 1, lap times are over a second and a half slower; the 2022 top time in first practice was a 2:04.369, set by Will Davison.
Brown’s lap was good enough to top the session ahead of Payne, with Kostecki’s early mark finishing in third in the #99 Erebus Camaro. A pair of Mustangs completed the top 5 – Chaz Mostert in the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Racing Mustang and David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Racing Mustangs both setting their times after the flag.
Scott Pye (#20 Toyota Forklifts Camaro), Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Racing), Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V Power Mustang), Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro), and Craig Lowndes (#888 Supercheap Auto Mustang) completed the 10, with Lowndes the highest placed wildcard, 8 tenths off the lead car.
Reigning champion Shane Van Gisbergen ended the session with the 15th best time in the #97 Red Bull Ampol Racing Camaro, while the most laps were filed by Bryce Fullwood in the #14 Middy’s Electrical Camaro, with 22 in the hour-long session.
The session was largely trouble-free, with only minor moments to mention. Van Gisbergen in the #97 Red Bull Ampol Racing Camaro and James Moffat in the #6 Monster Energy Mustang both toured the run-off at Murray’s Corner, while a few cars ran wide into the grass of The Chase.
The co-driver-only Practice 2 saw the same two teams in the top two spots; an Erebus Coca-Cola Camaro led a Grove Penrite Mustang, but neither car was a pacesetter in the early session. It was David Russell in the #99 Coca-Cola by Erebus Camaro that the ran fastest, reeling off a 2:05.682 to set the fastest time of the day. Russell was the only car in the 5’s, with the gap to the rest of the pack over six-tenths of a second.
Garth Tander was the lead Mustang, hitting a 6.33 late in the session to put the #26 Penrite Racing Mustang into second place. Tander’s lap came one lap after a scary moment at Skyline, where Tander had the Mustang all crossed up on the crest, electing to bail out and go through the escape road at The Esses. He wasn’t the only one to make that mistake; Warren Luff in the #20 Toyota Forklifts Camaro had a similar loss about 20m further down the track, with the car becoming unsettled over the inside kerb and almost pinging the Camaro into the wall.
Tander’s lap was 0.05 ahead of the early pace-setter Richie Stanaway, who put the #97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro on top early with a 2:06.38. He was the only one to set a lap time in anger before a Red Flag halted the session at the 10-minute mark. The stoppage was to retrieve Dean Fiore’s #14 Middy’s Electrical Camaro, which had found the wall at the exit of Murray’s Corner. Fiore had locked the inside front tyre under brakes and fired across the gravel and into the tyre barrier.
“I was on some pretty average tyres, just to bed myself in,” Fiore said to the host broadcaster. “It’s not ideal.
“I don’t think [the damage] is that bad.”
Despite Fiore’s assessment, the car didn’t make the track for the remainder of the session.
The session resumed after a 15-minute stoppage, with most of the co-drivers logging laps to get a feel for the new cars and conditions. A late flurry of laps saw a few surprises near the head of the field, as fresh tyres yielded lap time despite the sunnier conditions.
Behind Russell, Tander and Stanaway, the top 5 was completed by a pair of wild-card entries: Kai Allen, in the #98 Shell V-Power Mustang, ahead of Zane Goddard’s #888 Supercheap Auto Camaro. Whincup’s #88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro was next, followed by both Shell V-Power Mustangs – Alex Davison’s #17 ahead of D’Alberto’s #11 – with the top 10 completed by the #9 Coca-Cola by Erebus Camaro at the hands of Jack Perkins, and 2021 Bathurst winner Lee Holdsworth in the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang. An even split of Mustangs and Camaros in the top 10!
Kevin Estre finished the session in 19th in the #19 Penrite Racing Mustang, with a 2:07.5317, while former Dempsey Proton Porsche pilot Jaxon Evans finished in 22nd in the #4 SCT Logistics Camaro.
Ignoring Russell’s lap at the top of the times, from 2nd down to 24th were separated by only 1.4 seconds. Exciting news heading into tomorrow’s pair of practice sessions, with Qualifying to follow.
Practice 3 gets underway at 9:30 am AEDT (UTC+11) for another hour, followed by FP4 at 12:35 AEDT.
Qualifying for the 2023 Bathurst 1000 starts at 15:45 AEDT, with the 40-minute session setting the grid from positions 11 – 28, plus allowing entry to the top 10 shootout, to be held on Saturday.
