Tander, Russell star in Thursday co-driver practice

Garth Tander and David Russell have stolen the headlines in first co-driver practice in Bathurst.

Tander and Russell both undercut Will Davison’s leading time in Practice 1.

Tander, who is driving with Shane van Gisbergen, clocked a 2:04.135s.

Russell, who is driving with Brodie Kostecki, turned in a 2:04.237s.

Davison’s morning flyer was a 2:04.369s.

A flurry of late times shook up the time sheets, but Tander and Russell proved too far up the road.

Jamie Whincup, who is making his first appearance since last year’s event, was third all told.

Jordan Boys (driving with Macauley Jones) jumped to fourth ahead of Matt Campbell.

Campbell, who is driving with David Reynolds, only arrived in Australia on Wednesday.

The 60-minute session was bookended by red flags; one for Kurt Kostecki, and another for Warren Luff.

Kostecki, who is driving with brother Jake, buried the TRADIE Ford in the Hell Corner sand.

Luff later suffered a major off at The Chase with nine minutes remaining.

Tander arrived in Bathurst off the back of a productive solo test day at Queensland Raceway.

The four-time Bathurst winner had the #97 Commodore to himself with Shane van Gisbergen in New Zealand.

Tander was lucky to turn laps at all on Thursday afternoon, given van Gisbergen’s high-speed incident in Practice 1.

Tander turned in a 2:04.135s early on and put over a second on teammate Whincup.

With 33 minutes remaining, Russell clocked a 2:04.237s and slotted in just 0.1s behind Tander.

The times kept dropping in the closing minutes, with Zane Goddard dropped from fourth to sixth.

Zak Best was seventh ahead of Fabian Coulthard, who is driving with 2021 winner Chaz Mostert.

Aaron Seton kicked off his Bathurst debut with ninth in Jack Le Brocq’s Matt Stone Commodore.

James Moffat, who is again sharing with Cam Waters, rounded out the top 10.

Davison’s brother and co-driver Alex was 13th, with teammate Tony D’Alberto 23rd.

D’Alberto was one position behind Greg Murphy, who is making his first start since 2014.

Cars will return to the track on Friday for all-in Practice 3 at 10:10am local time.

Drivers will complete a fourth practice session at 1:00pm before qualifying at 4:15pm.