Ideal start for Courtney

James Courtney and the Holden Racing Team Commodore have topped morning practice, following on from his top three finish yesterday at the NP300 Navara Winton SuperSprint.

The #22 driver - who celebrates his 300thV8 Supercars race later this afternoon - recorded a 1min23.0172 lap late in the session, knocking off Michael Caruso by 0.393sec while running on the hard tyre.

Courtney won at the circuit in 2013 and, sitting second in the Championship, will be looking for a strong qualifying result in back to back sessions later this morning.

"We did a little run there at the end and car seems to be reacting pretty well," Courtney said.

"It's hard to know where everyone will be because everyone's running different strategies... we'll throw some tyres at it and see where everyone is in the next one."

Erebus' Will Davison came home third, with Fabian Coulthard and yesterday's fast man Chaz Mostert completing the top five.

After declaring his Red Bull Commodore had no pace yesterday, Jamie Whincup pulled up 14thin the session, though team boss Mark Dutton believed they had enough data to work with ahead of qualifying.

"As you can see from the time sheets we're not there yet, but I think we have some good info," Dutton said. "Everyone's lifted their game -it's never been easy, but it's harder than ever."

Craig Lowndes ended the session 20th, with Volvo's Scott McLaughlin 19thafter the 15-minute dash.

Click here for full results.

Back-to-back qualifying begins at 11.55am local time.

Stay tuned this weekend for all the V8 Supercars action:

**Saturday -**Race 10: 13.50, Race 11: 16.20, FOX SPORTS 506Highlights: 20.30 ONE, 24.00 Ten.

Sunday - Race 12: 13.15, FOX SPORTS 506Highlights: 16.00 Ten, 20.30 ONE.