Kostecki fastest in final Newcastle 500 practice

EREBUS young gun Brodie Kostecki trumped reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen to end the opening day of Supercars’ Gen3 era atop the timesheets.

Kostecki spent almost the entire 45-minute Practice 3 atop the order having laid down the fastest time of the day to date, a 1:11.6160s, in the opening minutes.

That was not eclipsed until Tim Slade shaved 0.0511s from the benchmark five minutes from the chequered flag.

Practice 2 pacesitter van Gisbergen then went to the top by recording 1:11.4625s with one minute remaining, only for Kostecki to reset the marker to 1:11.4068s.

Van Gisbergen ended up second from Chaz Mostert, Slade, James Golding, Nick Percat, Will Davison, Scott Pye, Cam Waters and Anton De Pasquale.

The top 10 was evenly split between five Chevrolets and five Fords while 24 of the 25 cars were separated by less than a second.

“It’s great to roll out here with some speed,” said Kostecki.

“I’ve been really focused on race runs in the first and second practice. I felt like a bit of a wobbler there, when the tyres got old, she’s a bit of a handful.

“Since I’ve jumped in this Coca-Cola Camaro with Erebus I’ve felt really confident. It is only Friday but I’m really excited about tomorrow.”

It was a clean first day for the Gen3 cars with all three 45-minute sessions running without a single red flag interruption.

Kostecki’s teammate Will Brown had the biggest moment of Practice 3; nosing his Camaro into the Turn 8 tyre barrier at the 33-minute mark after a snap of oversteer on turn-in.

Brown though was able to continue without damage and finished the session 12^th, one place behind impressive top rookie Cam Hill.

Practice 1 pacesetter Andre Heimgartner was just 13^th in the final reckoning while last-start winner Broc Feeney was even further back in 16^th.

A qualifying session and a Top 10 Shootout will take place prior to the first of the weekend’s two 250km races on Saturday.

RESULTS: Practice 3, Thrifty Newcastle 500