Broc Feeney paces final Gold Coast 500 practice
Triple Eight star Feeney leads all-Ford top four in dry session
Championship leader Matt Payne sidelined with mechanical dramas
Broc Feeney has topped the second and final practice session of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, as chief title rival Matt Payne was halted by a mechanical drama.
Feeney set a 1:09.4889s in the final qualifying simulations, remaining the benchmark despite a flurry of fast times being registered after the clock ran down.
Feeney led an all-Ford top four, with Finals contenders Cam Waters and Kai Allen second and fourth, while Practice 1 pacesetter James Golding was third, continuing his strong form.
Despite there only being just over an hour and a half between the two practice sessions, Practice 2 began under sunshine, which had dried up most of the remaining water on the circuit.
There was also a mad rush at Red Bull Ampol Racing to get two Fords on track, Will Brown's #888 Ford undergoing an engine change after Triple Eight discovered an issue with the crank angle sensor.
Times were immediately some five seconds quicker than the opening session of the weekend, Brodie Kostecki going straight to a 1:11.4435s.
With only 25 minutes of dry running before Boost Mobile Qualifying, the timing screens were lighting up through the opening 10 minutes, with David Reynolds the first to dip below a 1:10s on a 1:09.9704s.
A dry session also provided drivers with a first real opportunity to test the limits with the new tyre bundles at the Beach Chicane, with two-wheeling the order of the day, and both Payne and Waters kissing the top of the bundle.
They weren't the only ones pushing the limits, Erebus Motorsport debutant Jarrod Hughes running down the Turn 11 escape road on his first dry lap of Surfers Paradise, while Jackson Walls also scuffed up the left side of his Objective Ford after pounding the Turn 13 tyre wall.
Ryan Wood and Chaz Mostert put Walkinshaw TWG Racing's Toyotas first and second at the halfway point of the session, Wood a tenth clear on a 1:09.8689s.
Payne's ragged session then hit another hurdle as he pulled back into pit lane with half the session remaining, as the power steering let go on the championship-leading #19 Penrite Ford.
Cameron Hill was another to get away with clouting a tyre wall, this time at Turn 11, after losing the rear of the #14 Dare Iced Coffee Toyota entering the 90 degree left hander.
While Payne was stuck in pit lane with mechanics frantically working on the front of the #19 Penrite Ford, teammate Kai Allen went to the top in the dying minutes on a 1:09.7336s.
Allen's marker kicked off a flurry of qualifying simulations as the clock ticked to zero, with Jack Le Brocq setting a 1:09.6858s, before Feeney immediately set the session's benchmark on a 1:09.4889s.
Waters was just 0.0665s behind Feeney, with Golding, Allen, and Le Brocq also within two tenths of the benchmark time. Aaron Cameron, Mostert, Wood, Andre Heimgartner, and Reynolds rounded out the top 10.
Boost Mobile Qualifying rounds out Friday's action at 4:05pm local time/5:05pm AEDT.
