Bathurst 1000: Luff fastest in co-driver practice

The experienced co-driver spent the majority of the hour-long session working on race set-up in the #25 Walkinshaw Holden, hovering around the lead group as times dropped into the low sixes.

He then jumped long-time pacesetter Garth Tander with a late green tyre run that yielded an impressive 2m05.459s.

"We had a good programme so far this morning, we just kept chipping away from where Chaz [Mostert] ended up yesterday with the set-up of the car," said Luff.

"We just kept improving it. The car is really comfortable. We're still looking at more of a race car than a qualifying [car], he'll focus on the Shootout [in the] next [session], but I'm very happy."

Read Also:

• Van Gisbergen relished 'illegal' trackside jaunt
• Holdsworth's career-saving comeback
• Weather forces Bathurst 1000 start time change

Brad Jones Racing's Thomas Randle was another late improver, sneaking into second with a 2m05.741s, while Tander slipped back to third with his 2m05.817s set with 25 minutes to go.

James Moffat was the best-placed Tickford driver in fourth, followed by David Russell (MSR Holden), Dale Wood (Kelly Ford), Will Davison (Tickford Ford) and Will Brown (Erebus Holden).

Zane Goddard made it two MSR cars in the Top 10 with the ninth quickest time, edging Bathurst rookie Jordan Boys (BJR Holden).

There was some speedy spanners in the DJR Team Penske garage, meanwhile, after a transaxle issue left Tony D'Alberto stopped at the last corner after 20 minutes.

Remarkably the crew managed to swap the faulty unit for a new one before the end of the session, D'Alberto returning to the track with a little over three minutes to go.

"I went to grab second corner at the final corner and it didn't allow me to," D'Alberto explained. "Then it felt like I had some neutrals, so I just decided to shut it off. It all sounded a bit funky to me.

"Before that, though, the car was really good. I was on full tanks, trying to a do a race run, and it felt really nice."

He ended up 16th fastest, directly behind teammate Tim Slade and Triple Eight's Craig Lowndes.

Cla	#	Driver	Time	Gap	Interval
1	25	Chaz Mostert Warren Luff	2'05.459
2	8	Nick Percat Thomas Randle	2'05.741	0.282	0.282
3	97	Shane van Gisbergen Garth Tander	2'05.817	0.357	0.075
4	55	Jack Le Brocq James Moffat	2'05.845	0.385	0.027
5	35	Garry Jacobson David Russell	2'06.068	0.608	0.223
6	15	Rick Kelly Dale Wood	2'06.087	0.627	0.018
7	6	Cameron Waters Will Davison	2'06.088	0.628	0.001
8	9	David Reynolds Will Brown	2'06.089	0.629	0.000
9	34	Jake Kostecki Zane Goddard	2'06.107	0.647	0.018
10	14	Todd Hazelwood Jordan Boys	2'06.213	0.753	0.105
11	5	Lee Holdsworth Michael Caruso	2'06.365	0.905	0.152
12	44	James Courtney Broc Feeney	2'06.452	0.992	0.087
13	7	Andre Heimgartner Dylan O'Keeffe	2'06.522	1.062	0.069
14	17	Scott McLaughlin Tim Slade	2'06.545	1.085	0.022
15	88	Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes	2'06.720	1.260	0.175
16	12	Fabian Coulthard Tony D'Alberto	2'06.745	1.285	0.025
17	3	Macauley Jones Tim Blanchard	2'06.792	1.333	0.047
18	99	Anton De Pasquale Brodie Kostecki	2'06.809	1.349	0.016
19	4	Jack Smith Jack Perkins	2'06.890	1.430	0.081
20	18	Mark Winterbottom James Golding	2'07.078	1.619	0.188
21	19	Alex Davison Jonathon Webb	2'07.272	1.812	0.193
22	2	Bryce Fullwood Kurt Kostecki	2'07.492	2.032	0.220
23	20	Scott Pye Dean Fiore	2'07.531	2.071	0.039
24	22	Chris Pither Steven Owen	2'07.774	2.315	0.243
25	40	Tyler Everingham Jayden Ojeda	2'08.095	2.635	0.320
View full results