Erebus Motorsport lead final co-driver practice session at The Bend
Super2 Series leader Lochie Dalton a tenth clear of teammate Jarrod Hughes
Several teams run long race stints, headlined by Triple Eight
Erebus Motorsport's young co-driver duo of Lochie Dalton and Jarrod Hughes have ended the final co-driver session of the AirTouch 500 at The Bend on top.
Current DUNLOP Super2 Series leader Dalton was just over a tenth of a second clear in the #99 Camaro he'll share with Cooper Murray, with the #9 Camaro of Hughes/Jobe Stewart running line astern in another session without any major on-track incidents.
The co-driver field had an extra 10 minutes to play with, with Saturday's practice sessions extended out to 40 minutes after three half-hour hit outs on Friday.
Zak Best ran off at Turn 1 at the start of his first lap, whilst his fellow Blanchard Racing Team co-driver Richie Stanaway flew to the top on a 1:17.6850s, almost half a second clear of the field.
Race running was the order of the morning for the co-drivers, as they had one last session to themselves before the day builds towards qualifying.
16 minutes into the session, Will Davison (#19 Penrite Ford) knocked off Stanaway's marker with a 1:17.5617s, with Hughes, Lee Holdsworth (#18 DEWALT Chevrolet), and Mark Winterbottom (#6 Monster Energy Ford) filling out the top five through the opening half of the session.
Dalton jumped into second with 13 minutes remaining, a 1:17.6648s just a tenth off Davison's benchmark.
Tony D'Alberto (#38 Shell V-Power Ford) and Reuben Goodall (#55 Castrol Ford) had an awkward moment D'Alberto stuck the nose of his Shell V-Power Ford down the inside of Goodall's Castrol Mustang at Turn 8, the young gun having to open the steering to avoid contact.
There was a flurry of times to end the session, David Russell (#31 PremiAir Chevrolet) and Campbell Logan (#5 UNIT Ford) both jumping up into the top five before Erebus duo Dalton and Hughes went 1-2, Hughes just over a tenth off the #99's 1:17.4144s.
Winterbottom jumped up to third, with his Tickford teammate Goodall recovering from his near miss with D'Alberto to jump up to fifth late.
Red Bull Ampol Racing were once again down the timesheets, having elected to run both of their Mustangs on very long stints, Scott Pye running 21 laps straight out of the pits, and Nick Percat running 22 laps before finishing 24th and 18th respectively.
Harri Jones (#4 Sherrin Rentals Chevrolet) and Fabian Coulthard (#1 Mobil 1 Optus Toyota) also ran similar strategies, Coulthard running 19 laps in Chaz Mostert's Toyota and Jones 26 laps in Jack Le Brocq's Chevrolet.
Supercars are next on track at The Bend for the fifth and final practice session of the weekend at 12:00pm local time/12:30pm AEST.
