Chaz Mostert’s and Fabian Coulthard’s #1 Walkinshaw TWG Racing Toyota Supra during practice at The Bend.
The Walkinshaw TWG Toyota Supra topped Practice 5, leading the Grove Racing Ford Mustang of Matt Payne and Will Davison to the tune of 0.0328s.
Jack Le Brocq led Chevrolet’s efforts in his Matt Stone Racing Camaro, ending the session 0.1265s off the pace.
It was the first time across four practice sessions that Chevrolet had not been on top, and coincided with new parity measures.
“It’s never comfortable around here, that’s for sure,” said Mostert.
“Turn 5, even the back section in the mid part of the track there, we’re all pushing the limits of the track there and bringing on a lot of dirt [onto the track].
“From lap to lap it changes massively. Overall just pumped to find a bit of qualifying speed in the car.
“We’ve been working a lot on the race car and I think we’ve thrown a few darts at it and our results in the sessions have been all over the joint.
“It’s just nice to find some one-lap pace and now we try and work from there to find a bit of a race car for warm-up tomorrow but try and start as far forward as we can.
“You can’t really read into it. Everyone is all over the shop. It is hard work out there.”
Turn 5 proved to be a hotspot for the duration of the session as drivers pushed the limits.
Jayden Ojeda put his PremiAir Racing Camaro off the road there too, and the same was true for Ben Gomersall in his Tickford Racing Mustang wildcard.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was Dick Johnson Racing, whose Ford pair were third-to-last and last.
The Rylan Gray/Tony D’Alberto Mustang set a session-best 1:17.5679s to be 0.9796s while the Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood Mustang was 1.2709s off the pace on a 1:17.8592s.
Kostecki did not run a new tyre during the session and elected against a run in the final minutes.
“We were just focused on race trim and trying to make sure that the #17 Shell V-Power Ford Mustang is good for race time tomorrow,” he said.
“It was actually feeling really good and it was misbehaving a little bit but it’s really hard to tell around here.
“You’ve got so much thermal deg so we’re just trying to do a couple-lap runs and see what the characteristics of the balance would come in.
“We’re trying to be focused on that as much as possible. Pretty pumped going into quali. I think the car will be all right.
“I’ve just got to go out there and do a good job,” he added.
“The beauty about this format is that you’ve got a couple of sets of green tyres, so hopefully by the third run I should be able to figure it out, otherwise I might need to find a new job.”
Triple Eight’s two Red Bull Ampol-backed Mustangs were ninth and 17th in the hands of Broc Feeney/Nick Percat and Will Brown/Scott Pye respectively.
Brown said he was struggling with car stability, while there was very little change for Feeney in the 40-minute session.
Qualifying for the AirTouch 500 at The Bend gets underway at 2:45pm ACST.
Results: Repco Supercars Championship AirTouch 500 at The Bend, Practice 5
Pos
Num
Driver/Co-driver
Team
Car
Lap
Diff
Gap
1
1
Chaz Mostert/Fabian Coulthard
Walkinshaw TWG Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
1:16.5883
2
19
Matthew Payne/Will Davison
Grove Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:16.6211
0.0328
0.0328
3
4
Jack Le Brocq/Harri Jones
Matt Stone Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:16.7148
0.1265
0.0937
4
6
Cameron Waters/Mark Winterbottom
Tickford Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:16.7736
0.1853
0.0588
5
55
Thomas Randle/Reuben Goodall
Tickford Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:16.8233
0.235
0.0497
6
11
Jackson Walls/Jack Perkins
Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang GT
1:16.8528
0.2645
0.0295
7
26
Kai Allen/Tim Slade
Grove Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:16.9197
0.3314
0.0669
8
2
Ryan Wood/Jaxon Evans
Walkinshaw TWG Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
1:16.9213
0.333
0.0016
9
88
Broc Feeney/Nick Percat
Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang GT
1:16.9503
0.362
0.029
10
10
Zach Bates/Aaron Seton
Matt Stone Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:16.9525
0.3642
0.0022
11
18
Anton De Pasquale/Lee Holdsworth
Team 18
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:16.9596
0.3713
0.0071
12
20
David Reynolds/James Courtney
Team 18
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:17.0294
0.4411
0.0698
13
31
Jayden Ojeda/David Russell
PremiAir Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:17.0324
0.4441
0.003
14
777
Declan Fraser/Nash Morris
PremiAir Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:17.0977
0.5094
0.0653
15
8
Andre Heimgartner/Bryce Fullwood
Brad Jones Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
1:17.1008
0.5125
0.0031
16
96
Macauley Jones/Jordan Boys
Brad Jones Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
1:17.1034
0.5151
0.0026
17
888
William Brown/Scott Pye
Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang GT
1:17.1708
0.5825
0.0674
18
99
Cooper Murray/Lochie Dalton
Erebus Motorsport
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:17.2060
0.6177
0.0352
19
7
James Golding/Richie Stanaway
Blanchard Racing Team
Ford Mustang GT
1:17.2133
0.625
0.0073
20
3
Aaron Cameron/Zak Best
Blanchard Racing Team
Ford Mustang GT
1:17.2811
0.6928
0.0678
21
14
Cameron Hill/Brad Vaughan
Brad Jones Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
1:17.3348
0.7465
0.0537
22
15
Bayley Hall/Craig Lowndes
Team 18
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:17.3418
0.7535
0.007
23
5
Ben Gomersall/Campbell Logan
Tickford Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:17.4649
0.8766
0.1231
24
38
Rylan Gray/Tony D’Alberto
Dick Johnson Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:17.5679
0.9796
0.103
25
9
Jobe Stewart/Jarrod Hughes
Erebus Motorsport
Chev Camaro ZL1
1:17.6965
1.1082
0.1286
26
17
Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood
Dick Johnson Racing
Ford Mustang GT
1:17.8592
1.2709
0.1627