The Repco Supercars Championship was greeted by a damp Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, which steadily improved as the 25-minute opening practice session wore on. Drivers faced tricky slippery conditions right from the get-go, demanding absolute precision on the unforgiving concrete-lined layout of the Gold Coast 500.
Setting the pace early, Golding unleashed a blistering lap time of 1:16.0169s behind the wheel of the Blanchard Racing Team Ford Mustang. Crucially, the very last of his 12 completed laps proved to be his fastest, putting down a definitive marker for the rest of the field to chase.
Walkinshaw TWG Racing’s Ryan Wood emerged as the closest challenger, finishing the session second fastest though remaining 0.5088s in arrears. The youngster managed his pace brilliantly despite the lingering moisture on the asphalt during the initial phase.
Further down the order, third-placed Aaron Cameron tested the absolute limits throughout the morning, threatening on multiple occasions to put his BRT Mustang straight into the wall at Turn 3. Meanwhile, David Reynolds, Chaz Mostert, Zach Bates, Broc Feeney, Cameron Waters, Will Brown, and Cameron Hill successfully rounded out a competitive top 10.
The action-packed session was briefly interrupted midway through by a red flag period caused by Anton De Pasquale. The Team 18 driver spun his Chevrolet Camaro off the Turn 3 kerb at the opening chicane, forcing marshals to temporarily halt proceedings to clear the track.
The final turn also proved to be a major hot spot for drama and near-misses. Ryan Wood suffered a spin of his own, while Cameron Waters and PremiAir Racing’s fresh recruit Cooper Murray both slid nose-first into the protective tyre bundles.
“I scratched the new car on my first day on the job! Sorry to the boys,” admitted Cooper Murray candidly regarding his off-track excursion.
“The conditions were tricky out there at the start, especially when the track was fully wet. I had a ball driving around here in the wet. It was so cool,” he continued, sharing his excitement.
“It was a busy session then. With all the rain, it dried out a little bit towards the end. It’s just about the ergonomics and getting myself comfortable. I wasn’t quite comfortable then in the car. We’ll tune up the seat insert a little bit and go again in Practice 2 in a couple of hours,” Murray concluded.
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