The Bend Supercars: Heimgartner tops second practice

Conditions steadily improved across the half-hour session as the likes of Tim Slade, Chaz Mostert and Macauley Jones all enjoyed stints at the top of the times.

Heimgartner made his first appearance in P1 just after the half-way point in the session after switching to slick tyres, before being shuffled down the order as the track got faster.

The Kelly Grove Racing driver then went for a green tyre run in the closing minutes, a late shower of rain not enough to stop him from reclaiming top spot with a 1m49.241s

"We went out on greens really late," said Heimgartner.

"The car was good, I knew I could do the time. I could gave gone a bit faster again but I made couple of small mistakes that cost a few tenths.

"But I'm really happy. The car this weekend, we continued it on from where we were last year. So I really know what I've got under me, which is half the battle. In those conditions you want to know what you've got."

Jamie Whincup, who was second fastest, said he was surprised at how quickly the track was drying in between those showers.

“Today has been about rain – the track starts to dry and it rains again," said the seven-time series champion.

"It’s probably going to continue for the rest of the day as well, but in both conditions my car is reasonable.

"It’s going to be who goes at the right time with the right tyres for qualifying but if we can get that right, I think we should be close.

“The track is quite smooth and it’s not that hot here, so traditionally that means it would dry slow, but actually once you get no rain for a bit it actually dries quicker than you’d expect. So we’re monitoring that and hopefully we get the right tyres on at the right time.”

Will Davison and David Reynolds were third and fourth fastest respectively ahead of Chaz Mostert and James Courtney.

Todd Hazelwood was seventh, series leader Shane van Gisbergen eighth, Brodie Kostecki ninth and Bryce Fullwood 10th.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Interval
1	7	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	1'49.241
2	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.404	0.162	0.162
3	17	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1'49.489	0.247	0.084
4	26	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	1'49.656	0.414	0.167
5	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.658	0.416	0.002
6	44	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	1'49.681	0.439	0.022
7	14	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.720	0.478	0.038
8	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.740	0.498	0.020
9	99	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.774	0.532	0.034
10	2	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.993	0.751	0.218
11	3	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	1'50.002	0.760	0.009
12	9	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	1'50.006	0.764	0.003
13	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'50.018	0.776	0.012
14	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'50.098	0.856	0.079
15	19	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'50.178	0.936	0.080
16	35	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'50.247	1.005	0.069
17	5	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	1'50.270	1.028	0.023
18	55	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	1'50.278	1.036	0.008
19	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	1'50.454	1.212	0.176
20	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'50.475	1.233	0.020
21	96	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'50.503	1.261	0.028
22	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'50.894	1.652	0.391
23	22	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	1'51.131	1.889	0.237
24	27	Kurt Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	1'51.136	1.894	0.005
25	11	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	1'51.330	2.088	0.193
26	34	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	1'52.963	3.721	1.633
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