Triple Eight inspecting Brown Camaro after practice crash

Triple Eight Race Engineering is leaving no stone unturned at The Bend Motorsport Park following Saturday morning’s shock practice tangle.

Saturday was a tale of feast and famine for the team. Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup will start from pole, while Will Brown/Scott Pye will have to fight from 16th on the grid.

The day’s action began with a bizarre tangle under Safety Car test conditions, with Whincup hitting Pye. Pye was rubbed out of Practice 4 after the crash. Whincup, meanwhile, was fined over his role in the incident.

Brown later qualified a lowly 16th, with Feeney denied provisional pole by Brodie Kostecki. Feeney had the last laugh, though, defeating Cameron Hill in the Shootout.

A frustrated Brown then went straight into the transporter after qualifying, before watching his teammate claim a 14th pole of the season.

After the Top Ten Shootout, Triple Eight quickly moved to take a closer look at the #1, and whether there was residual damage. Race engineer Andrew Edwards flanked mechanics as they inspected the left rear of the car, where the wheel was plucked out due to the hit from Whincup.

With Brown 0.7s off the pace in qualifying, Triple Eight is also trawling through data to see if any lingering damage is causing a performance loss.

Post-session, Brown said in a team release: "Unfortunately a tough start to the day. I mean, the additional driver session with what happened there and then just got tougher from there really.

"Thought we had a really good car underneath us yesterday afternoon and then just struggled to get any pace today. Ended up in 16th which was very disappointing, but we'll get after it tomorrow and try and fight forward.

"We shouldn't be 16th, shouldn't be where we are. They boys and team do a good job and they'll take a good look at it now before tomorrow. We'll be ready to go."

Regardless, with co-drivers likely to start Sunday’s race, Pye knows he has it all to do, insisting he must “stay out of trouble” and “move forward.

“This place is not forgiving at all. When you’re struggling a little bit with balance — the corners are so long, you can’t hide,” Pye said on the broadcast.

“There’s no denying, we’re struggling a little bit for pace. His lap wasn’t looking too bad until the exit of [Turn] 15 through 16, but he had a big slide through [Turn] 16 and it just looks like that last sector has cooked the rear tyres.

“There’s no excuses. You get plenty of time to throw tyres at it and we’re just not quite there. I’m sure Will is now having a thinking, Andrew is having a think at the front of the counter there looking at data, analysing what we can do for the race

“That’s why I get paid the big bucks… I’ve got to get this thing off the line, stay out of trouble, and move forward so when Will gets back in, I’m handing him something clean and up the pointy end.”

The opening race of the Ryco Enduro Cup will begin at at 1:45pm local time/2:15pm AEST, and will run over 102 laps of The Bend Motorsport Park.