DJR, Erebus playing catch-up after tricky Perth Friday

Friday practice in Perth was a head-scratcher for several teams and drivers, with powerhouse teams Dick Johnson Racing and Erebus Motorsport notably encountering a difficult day.

In Supercars.com's pre-event analysis, Gen3 history pointed to Triple Eight and WAU being the teams to beat this weekend. That proved the case on Friday, with the two teams first and second on average.

Penrite Racing has also been strong in Perth, being third in qualifying and races in Perth in the Gen3 era, and it was backed up by Matt Payne being fastest in Friday's second session.

Blanchard Racing Team also hit early strides off the back of its previous Perth pace, with James Courtney cracking the top 10 in both sessions on Friday.

However, champion teams DJR and Erebus failed to crack the top 15 in either session on Friday, with DJR forced to make a steering rack change on Brodie Kostecki's #38 Shell V-Power Ford amid issues in Practice 2.

Kostecki labelled Friday a "tough" day on social media, and it showed for DJR on- and off-track. Per Supercars data analyst Scott Sinclair, across the combined 60 minutes of practice, DJR spent 55 minutes in the pits across both cars (Kostecki 27 minutes, Will Davison 28 minutes). DJR also recorded the fewest laps on Friday, 57 total across both cars.

Compared to DJR’s 55 minutes, the average total time in pits for all the other teams was 43 minutes. Kostecki only did five flying laps the entire second session. For context, Payne did eight.

2023 champion team Erebus was the only squad unable to crack the top 20, with Jack Le Brocq 22nd and 23rd, and rookie Cooper Murray 25th twice.

Despite the results, Sinclair insisted that Boost Mobile Qualifying will be dictated by a combination of traffic, and cars that seem hard to drive. Additionally, some cars trying a slow warm-up lap meant there were no trends from when cars did their fastest.

Payne has already predicted there will be traffic headaches, with Feeney adding: "Felt like there was a little bit more left on the table if we'd gotten some clear laps... it's peak hour traffic out there. You know, it's a 55-second lap with 25 cars, so it's super tight out there."

Supercars action resumes on Saturday with dual Boost Mobile Qualifying from 9:45am local time/11:45am AEST. Race 14 will commence at 12:55pm local/2:55pm AEST, followed by Race 15 at 4:10pm local/6:10pm AEST.

Average result in Friday Perth practice (2025)