Matt Payne tops Sandown 500 practice while Chaz Mostert faces shift issue
Grove Racing driver Matt Payne set the fastest time in the second practice for the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, with Finals Series contender Chaz Mostert encountering a shift-cut problem that limited his pace.
Matt Payne recorded a 1:08.5014 lap to lead the second 25-minute practice session for the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, edging fellow Ford driver Broc Feeney by 0.0735 seconds.
"There was a lot of work that went into this event for us," Payne said. "We seem to always go okay here but it was never like we felt like we could win. I really wanted to try and put a package together that really worked around here. I think we’ve definitely improved last year to this year. I still think there are a couple of things we can tune. A really clean day for us. It’s been a while since we’ve had two good practices, so really happy."
Triple Eight Race Engineering entries also featured in the top ten, with Will Brown ninth and Dick Johnson Racing’s Brodie Kostecki just ahead. Chevrolet’s Cooper Murray was the fastest of his marque in third, followed by Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner in fourth.
Team 18 experienced a tense finish to Practice 2 as David Reynolds and Anton De Pasquale posted the penultimate and final laps respectively. De Pasquale improved to seventh on his last lap after a four-second deficit earlier in the session.
"Just not completing laps. Some by choice, some not by choice," De Pasquale explained. "The tyre drops off so much here so you’re trying to maximise your changes and we’re doing a lot of them. The tyre was a long way out of its age limit and then the new tyre obviously feels a lot better. We’ll tune up the Cub Cadet Chevy Camaro tomorrow. It’s hard to know what tyres everyone is on. We’ve gone for the super soft. All good."
Chaz Mostert, a Finals Series contender, was only 20th in Practice 2, half a second off the pace, after reporting a shift-cut issue that the team intends to fix before qualifying. His Walkinshaw TWG teammate Ryan Wood was sixth fastest, just behind James Golding of Blanchard Racing Team.
Practice 1 had been led by PremiAir Racing’s Jayden Ojeda, who benefited from an extra tyre set under the Supercars rookie policy. The fastest times overall came in Practice 2 as track conditions improved and teams switched to the super-soft Dunlop compound.
Qualifying for the Sandown 500 is scheduled for Saturday at 11:20 a.m. AEDT.