Le Brocq steals Friday honours in Townsville

Jack Le Brocq has carried his Darwin form into the NTI Townsville 500 with the fastest time in Friday practice.

Le Brocq, who scored Matt Stone Racing’s first Supercars win last month, put 0.24s on the field at the death in Practice 2.

The MSR driver’s 1:13.4320s proved over a quarter of a second quicker than Bryce Fullwood’s time, a 1:13.6790s.

Fullwood (#14 Middy’s Electrical Camaro) was only 0.0851s ahead of Cam Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang).

Waters, a two-time race winner in North Queensland, was just 0.0001s ahead of reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen.

Van Gisbergen (#97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro) returned to Australia this week after his breakthrough NASCAR win in Chicago.

The Kiwi, a 10-time race winner in Townsville, was third in Friday’s first session, which was topped by Will Brown.

“We wanted to have a swing at it, from P1 to P2,” said Le Brocq, who is celebrating his 31st birthday.

“I had no time on my dash, so I had no idea what time I did there!

“It’s awesome, credit to the boys, but it’s early days. We have to back it up tomorrow.”

Brown (#9 Coca-Cola Camaro) ended up sixth behind Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro), and ahead of Scott Pye (#20 Hino Camaro).

Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Mustang) impressed to eighth ahead of Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro).

James Courtney (#5 Snowy River Caravans Mustang) rounded out the top 10, and was nearly 0.5s from Le Brocq's benchmark.

Series leader Brodie Kostecki (#99 Coca-Cola Camaro) was 14th, having made an error on his fast lap at Turn 3 in the dying seconds.

Under overcast skies, Brown set the early pace with a 1:14.2916s, before Payne went fastest with a 1:14.1906s.

Drivers moved onto better tyres, with Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) turning in a 1:14.0657s to go top.

Heimgartner (1:13.7691s) and Fullwood (1:13.6790s) then moved ahead, with Le Brocq third ahead of Pye and David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang).

Brown and Payne improved to third and fourth; all the while, Kostecki looked set to go to the top before locking the inside front at Turn 3.

Waters set a 1:13.7641s just before the chequered flag came, before Le Brocq went fastest of all.

Cars will return to the track on Saturday for ARMOR ALL Qualifying at 10:15am AEST, followed by the Top Ten Shootout at 12:00pm.

The first 88-lap race of the weekend, Race 16, will commence at 2:40pm.