A RARE chance for Repco Supercars Championship co-drivers to take centre stage saw an old dog and a young pup come to the fore.
In the absence of a multiple-round endurance season, there are precious few opportunities to gauge how the Repco Bathurst 1000 specialists compare against one another – not to mention their corresponding primary driver – in an official timed session.
Practice 2 at the Sandown SuperSprint yesterday provided the only such chance before the circus rolls up to Mount Panorama in October.
With only cars entered in the full Sandown event eligible to take part in the additional driver practice, there was never going to be a look at the various wildcards that will tackle The Mountain.
But there were 24 of the 25 full-time cars in action, with the only exception being the parked #26 Penrite Racing Mustang of David Reynolds/Matt Campbell, given the latter is overseas.
The other outlier was Craig Lowndes hopping into the #4 SCT Logistics ZB Commodore, which is yet to have a co-driver assigned to it.
MORE: Jones, Lowndes team up 28 years on
By the end of 30 minutes, two drivers stood out having upstaged their primaries: Jamie Whincup and Zak Best.
Whincup topped the afternoon session to show that fatherhood and life as Triple Eight team principal/managing director has done little to slow the seven-time champion down.
Best meanwhile carried on from his Tailem Bend form as he continues to push for a 2023 main game promotion.
Lowndes was best of the rest, lobbing a time marginally shy of what Jack Smith managed in opening practice.
At the other end of the spectrum, Tyler Everingham was the only co-driver to be more than a second off the pace of his primary, as the new Team 18 signing got to grips with Scott Pye’s #20 Holden.
Of course, these pace comparisons must be taken with a grain of salt, with teams undoubtedly having run varying session programs and outright co-driver pace likely being far from the top priority.
Nevertheless, V8 Sleuth brings you the data below:
| Car | Primary driver | Prac1 time | Co-driver | Prac2 time | Differential |
| 88 | Broc Feeney | 01:08.5 | Jamie Whincup | 01:08.2 | -0.2370 |
| 55 | Thomas Randle | 01:08.8 | Zak Best | 01:08.7 | -0.1021 |
| 4 | Jack Smith | 01:09.2 | Craig Lowndes | 01:09.2 | 0.0180 |
| 56 | Jake Kostecki | 01:08.7 | Kurt Kostecki | 01:08.9 | 0.1458 |
| 6 | Cameron Waters | 01:08.5 | James Moffat | 01:08.7 | 0.1653 |
| 8 | Andre Heimgartner | 01:08.5 | Dale Wood | 01:08.7 | 0.2700 |
| 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | 01:08.1 | Garth Tander | 01:08.5 | 0.3667 |
| 500 | Lee Holdsworth | 01:08.6 | Matt Payne | 01:09.0 | 0.3825 |
| 5 | James Courtney | 01:08.7 | Zane Goddard | 01:09.2 | 0.4404 |
| 25 | Chaz Mostert | 01:08.0 | Fabian Coulthard | 01:08.5 | 0.4922 |
| 9 | Will Brown | 01:08.3 | Jack Perkins | 01:08.8 | 0.5110 |
| 96 | Macauley Jones | 01:08.3 | Jordan Boys | 01:08.8 | 0.5254 |
| 31 | James Golding | 01:08.6 | Dylan O’Keeffe | 01:09.1 | 0.5331 |
| 34 | Jack Le Brocq | 01:08.5 | Aaron Seton | 01:09.0 | 0.5550 |
| 11 | Anton De Pasquale | 01:08.1 | Tony D’Alberto | 01:08.6 | 0.5736 |
| 99 | Brodie Kostecki | 01:08.2 | David Russell | 01:08.8 | 0.6355 |
| 2 | Nick Percat | 01:08.6 | Warren Luff | 01:09.3 | 0.6839 |
| 14 | Bryce Fullwood | 01:08.7 | Dean Fiore | 01:09.4 | 0.6841 |
| 3 | Tim Slade | 01:08.3 | Tim Blanchard | 01:09.1 | 0.7238 |
| 18 | Mark Winterbottom | 01:08.1 | Michael Caruso | 01:08.8 | 0.7609 |
| 22 | Chris Pither | 01:08.3 | Cameron Hill | 01:09.1 | 0.8086 |
| 35 | Todd Hazelwood | 01:08.5 | Jayden Ojeda | 01:09.3 | 0.8188 |
| 17 | Will Davison | 01:07.8 | Alex Davison | 01:08.7 | 0.8511 |
| 20 | Scott Pye | 01:08.4 | Tyler Everingham | 01:09.4 | 1.0506 |
| 26 | David Reynolds | 01:08.2 | Matt Campbell | – | N/A |
