Randle fastest as crash ends Adelaide Practice 1

THOMAS Randle was a surprise pacesetter in opening practice for the VALO Adelaide 500, as a red flag brought the session to an early end.

The Castrol-backed Tickford Racing Mustang driver had shot to the top of the order by setting a 1:19.8035s best just seconds before the stoppage.

Red flags flew due to Macauley Jones’ Commodore having stopped at Turn 9 after he’d clouted the concrete at the preceding sweeper.

With only 59 seconds of the 30-minute session remaining, the red flags brought an end to the session and the hopes of a slew of drivers attempting to go faster.

Scott Pye and Shane van Gisbergen had traded the fastest time for the bulk of a session in which drivers had their first taste of the resurfaced street circuit.

Van Gisbergen held sway with 1:19.9722s before being edged by Brodie Kostecki (1:19.8089s) and then Randle in quick succession.

Kostecki ended up second ahead of another late improver, Cam Waters (who had a spin at Turn 9 earlier in the session), van Gisbergen, Andre Heimgartner and Pye.

Bryce Fullwood, Mark Winterbottom, Lee Holdsworth and Will Brown completed the top 10.

A bizarre moment occurred when the chequered flag was incorrectly displayed and then quickly withdrawn four minutes from the end.

The big talking point though was the surface, which although quick was not enough for the practice lap record of 1:19.2951s to fall just yet. 

Pacesetter Randle said the biggest challenging was dealing with the move from the old surface to the new on the run to Turn 9.

“The red flag definitely came out at a good time straight after I did my lap,” he said.

“I don’t know how many other people did a lap, I think Cam got a lap in, but it’s just a credit to the whole team at Tickford Racing. The Castrol Racing Mustang was on-song.

“There’s a lot that has changed, obviously the layout hasn’t changed but the grip levels and we started with a bit of oil on the track.

“We started with the (used) Bathurst tyres then we went to the green at the end, which I think is what most people were wanting to do.

“The hardest thing for the me was braking for the hairpin: you start braking on the old surface and then halfway through it changes to the new surface.

“There’s a little bit of a bump there but then there’s quite a lot of grip so I think that’s probably somewhere where I need to step up to the mark.

“The car, we worked on it and it was really good.”

The Repco Supercars Championship field will return to the track for Practice 2 at 1:15pm local time tomorrow ahead of qualifying later in the afternoon.

RESULTS: Practice 1, 2022 VALO Adelaide 500