Kai Allen fastest in opening Bathurst 1000 practice
Teammate Matt Payne brought into garage with power steering leak
Erebus' Jarrod Hughes brings out red flag after Hell Corner off
Kai Allen has got his 2026 Repco Bathurst 1000 off campaign to a strong start, topping the opening practice session of the weekend by a substantial margin.
Allen, who will share his new-look #26 Penrite Ford with Tim Slade, put more than three tenths of a second on the field with his benchmark of a 2:05.5460s. However, it wasn't all smooth sailing for Penrite Racing.
Defending Bathurst champion Matt Payne was denied a final run, as he was brought back to the pit lane after the Penrite Racing crew found power steering fluid on their garage floor, the Grove team taking no chances early in the weekend.
The field rolled out under picture perfect conditions at Mount Panorama for their first hour of track running for the week. Some teams elected to undertake some procedural running early, with Walkinshaw TWG Racing bedding brake pads with both Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood, while Team 18 was forced to do a precautionary brake bleed for Anton De Pasquale.
Macauley Jones also returned to pit lane with an airlock in his Brad Jones Racing Supra's engine. Erebus Motorsport were also having issues with both of their Camaros, Cooper Murray complaining of a brake vibration, while Jobe Stewart had a power steering drama.
Track conditions were very loose, with Will Brown tagging the inside wall at The Cutting, and Zach Bates also having a big slide through The Chase early in the one-hour session.
Defending Bathurst champions Penrite Racing were fast early, with Allen and Payne both in the top three. However, it was PremiAir Racing rookie Jayden Ojeda who set the early benchmark on a 2:06.8482s.
Lee Holdsworth was the first of the co-drivers to get laps, as De Pasquale decided to hand over the reigns of the #18 DEWALT entry just past halfway.
Brakes also were a topic of radio discussion up and down the lane, with several drivers complaining about braking performance throughout the opening hour of the weekend.
Erebus recovered from their early mechanical scares to go fourth with Stewart, and seventh with Murray, before Stewart's co-driver Jarrod Hughes brought out the first red flag of the weekend with a harmless trip into the Hell Corner gravel.
The session was stopped with just over 12 and a half minutes remaining, spoiling what could've been a fastest lap of the session for Allen, who was on two purple sectors, while James Golding did sneak in a lap to go second just before the interruption.
Several co-drivers were installed when the session went back to green flag conditions after Hughes was recovered, though De Pasquale jumped back into the #18 Camaro after Holdsworth's stint.
Allen was straight back into the rhythm after the red flag, and was the first into the 2:05's on a 2:05.5460s, putting 1.3s on the field and going within a few tenths of Ryan Wood's benchmark from the corresponding session.
Brodie Kostecki also went out on a new set of tyres after the interruption, and went second behind Allen, albeit some nine tenths down on a 2:06.5014s. Ojeda swapped places with Kostecki with two minutes remaining, joining Allen in the 2:05's on a 2:05.8737s, whilst Cam Waters leapt up from the tail end of the field to go third on a 2:06.0704s.
A late flyer from David Reynolds gave Team 18 an encouraging start to the weekend, the 2017 Bathurst winner finishing the session in third, with De Pasquale fifth after a late flyer of his own.
Supercars are back on track at Bathurst for Practice 2 for additional drivers only at 3:45pm local time.
