Sean Hanley is greeted by Neil Crompton after his hot laps. Image: Pace Images
Sean Hanley strapped into Brad Jones Racing’s #8 R&J Batteries Supra alongside Andre Heimgartner during the post-practice ride session.
Hanley was vice president of sales and marketing at Toyota until this year, when he moved into a senior executive advisor role.
The larger than life character had been critical to Toyota giving Supercars the green light and was initially the public face of its entry.
“I’ve never, ever experienced anything so fast,” he said after climbing from the car.
“The best part was coming up to the corners and thinking ‘my god, is he going to slow down?’ And he did.
“It was just masterful driving. I’ve watched this sport all my life but until you’re in there you don’t understand how skilful and how great it is.
Sean Hanley with Andre Heigmartner. Image: Pace Images
“To think they have to do that for hours and hours, it’s mind blowing. It was unbelievably skilful and exhilarating.
“The only real issues I had were getting in and then getting out!”
Although Hanley is no longer the public face of the Toyota Supercars program, he has appeared trackside at several events.
This weekend marks another milestone for Toyota with the rollout of an engine upgrade aimed at fixing reliability issues.
Walkinshaw TWG driver Chaz Mostert was the fastest Toyota driver in practice, clocking third fastest behind Ford pair Brodie Kostecki and Broc Feeney.