Cameron Hill puts Toyota, BJR on top in enduro test
Hill/Brad Vaughan Supra fastest in afternoon session in Ipswich
Harri Jones crash the biggest on track story of Tuesday's test
Cameron Hill and Brad Jones Racing have fired the final shot before the Supercars season hits enduro mode, topping Tuesday's afternoon test session.
The #14 DARE Iced Coffee Toyota, shared by Hill and Brad Vaughan, ended up just 0.008s ahead of the #26 Penrite Racing Ford of Kai Allen/Tim Slade.
The #888 Red Bull Ampol Ford of Will Brown/Scott Pye moved to third in the final minutes of a session punctuated by a heavy crash for Matt Stone Racing co-driver Harri Jones.
Jones walked away from an incident in the early minutes of the afternoon session, with Jones left a passenger at over 200km/h as he copped a brake failure in his Camaro.
It meant the Jack Le Brocq/Jones Chevrolet completed not only the fewest laps of the day, but also sustained enough damage to be sidelined from Wednesday's ride session, also at Queensland Raceway.
The Zach Bates/Aaron Seton Camaro, the sister car to Le Brocq/Jones, logged the most laps of the afternoon session in a bid to gain more data.
Brodie Kostecki's co-driver Todd Hazelwood opened the afternoon session with a 1:09.5570s in the #17 Shell V-Power Ford, as teams cycled through pit stops.
Driver changes, refuelling practice and systems checks were the mode of the opening minutes, before the day unravelled for Jones and MSR.
After a lengthy stoppage, Brown laid down a 1:09:4990s, followed by a 1:09.4430s, as the 2024 champion got to grips with new engineer David Cauchi.
A short second stoppage was called for the Tickford wildcard of Ben Gomersall, who looped his Mustang into the gravel trap at Turn 6.
The session fell into a lull of sorts, before Allen jumped to first with a 1:09.0890s. With 45 minutes remaining, Hill clocked the fastest time of the day with a 1:09.0810s, with Ryan Wood going fourth 15 minutes later with a 1:09.3070s.
With six to go, Brown moved to third with a 1:09.2180s, with Mark Winterbottom moving Cam Waters' #6 Monster Ford to seventh at the death with a 1:09.3280s.
As it were, the Hill/Vaughan Supra also logged more laps than any other car with 198, which equates to 614 kilometres of running. 13 cars logged more than 500 kilometres, with the sister BJR entry of Macauley Jones/Jordan Boys the only other car to breach the 600km mark.
The season hits enduro mode at the Ryco Enduro Cup opener, the AirTouch 500 at The Bend, on September 11-13. Tickets are on sale now.
