Tailem Bend Supercars: Tim Slade leads opening practice session

The 45-minute session presented the first opportunity of the weekend for teams to get familiar with the new circuit.

Shane van Gisbergen was the first to set the benchmark time at a 1:54.70, but it was soon bettered by rookie Anton De Pasquale, who lapped the course in 1:52.80 seconds.

The fast time continued to be lowered as time clicked away with Rick Kelly the first driver to break into the 1:51 second bracket. 

In the closing minutes, as expected, the times really picked up with Tim Slade ultimately ending up at the top of the board with a lap of 1:50.1395 seconds, over four seconds quicker than the initial fast lap set by SVG. Michael Caruso clocked in second after a late flyer, two tenths adrift of Slade's benchmark.

Tim Blanchard, Van Gisbergen and David Reynolds rounded out the top-five.

Championship leader Scott McLaughlin ended up 18th on the time sheets at a 1:51.9486.

As for incidents, there were several off-track excursions, including Nick Percat who went off course twice before being plagued by potential gearbox issues. Richie Stanaway went for a ride as well, spinning at Turn 10.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	17	1'50.1395			161.794
2	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	14	1'50.3344	0.1949	0.1949	161.509
3	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	14	1'50.4539	0.3144	0.1195	161.334
4	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	14	1'50.6727	0.5332	0.2188	161.015
5	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	12	1'51.0510	0.9115	0.3783	160.466
6	99	Anton de Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	13	1'51.0955	0.9560	0.0445	160.402
7	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	15	1'51.2021	1.0626	0.1066	160.248
8	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	13	1'51.2205	1.0810	0.0184	160.222
9	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG X	14	1'51.2892	1.1497	0.0687	160.123
10	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	17	1'51.3443	1.2048	0.0551	160.044
11	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	17	1'51.3479	1.2084	0.0036	160.038
12	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG X	14	1'51.3839	1.2444	0.0360	159.987
13	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	15	1'51.7612	1.6217	0.3773	159.447
14	230	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	17	1'51.8109	1.6714	0.0497	159.376
15	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	15	1'51.8501	1.7106	0.0392	159.320
16	56	Richie Stanaway	Ford Falcon FG X	13	1'51.8895	1.7500	0.0394	159.264
17	1	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	18	1'51.8922	1.7527	0.0027	159.260
18	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	16	1'51.9486	1.8091	0.0564	159.180
19	25	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	11	1'52.0032	1.8637	0.0546	159.102
20	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	16	1'52.0041	1.8646	0.0009	159.101
21	4	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	13	1'52.1787	2.0392	0.1746	158.853
22	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	14	1'52.2488	2.1093	0.0701	158.754
23	35	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	12	1'52.7063	2.5668	0.4575	158.110
24	18	Jason Bright	Holden Commodore ZB	17	1'52.7254	2.5859	0.0191	158.083
25	42	Kurt Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	15	1'52.7475	2.6080	0.0221	158.052
26	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	15	1'52.8152	2.6757	0.0677	157.957
27	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	14	1'53.0483	2.9088	0.2331	157.631
28	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	10	1'53.3776	3.2381	0.3293	157.173