Falcons on top at Hidden Valley

David Reynolds and Scott Pye have led a Ford charge in practice at the SKYCITY Triple Crown.

The lap record fell late in the session as The Bottle-O's Reynolds powered through on the newly resurfaced track on soft Dunlop tyres to record a 1min07.2893 lap, despite issues with the front splitter, which the team is now working on between sessions.

Pye was 0.52sec behind, starting the event well for DJR Team Penske, after Marcos Ambrose steered the racecar for the first time since March.

Reynolds was one of a handful of drivers who bolted on the soft tyre during the session, and believed he could've gone even faster out there.

"I had to pass a few cars which made it a bit funny, my time should be a few tenths quicker," Reynolds told v8supercars.com.au.

He admitted the plan hadn't always been to run the soft tyres early in practice, but as he and engineer Brad Wischusen tuned the car, realised its balance would be better suited to running on the softer compound, which teams will use for the second qualifying session and race tomorrow as well as during Sunday's 200km race.

"At the start the car really wasn't suited ... but we made some changes, moved forward," Reynolds said.

"The only time I really ran off was when I wasn't concentrating on the in-lap. Got a few things to sort out in the front end so we'll hopefully go back out."

While The Bottle-O driver has performed well at Hidden Valley previously, he hasn't won a race at the 2.9km circuit. It was the one that got away in 2013 after contact from teammate Mark Winterbottom took him out of the lead.

"I've always gone well here but never really won. I've been close - I've won a race that wasn't counted as a race, the half race [first part of the 60/60 in 2013] so I've been close."

Team BOC's Jason Bright - who held the previous race and qualifying records - came home third, ahead of Nissan's Michael Caruso, Tim Slade, Craig Lowndes, Mark Winterbottom and Shane van Gisbergen.

Lowndes, van Gisbergen and Will Davison - who finished 12th - also used the soft tyre.

Click here for full results.

Jamie Whincup finished the session 15th, and Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander was at the bottom of the timesheets as the team analysed the aerodynamics of the Commodore, making the most of Friday testing time.

The second practice session begins at 2.15 EST at the SKYCITY Triple Crown.