ADELAIDE, Australia — James Courtney turned back the clock and set the fast time during the first practice session for the VAILO Adelaide 500, the season finale for the Repco Supercars Championship.
Courtney, who won the Adelaide 500 in 2014 and 2015, put his Blanchard Racing Team Ford Mustang on top of the time sheets with a 1:19.6835 run.
The 44-year-old was 0.155 seconds quicker than David Reynolds, who led the times for the balance of the session, with 2016 Adelaide winner Nick Percat, 2012 winner Will Davison and Chaz Mostert rounding out the top five.
“The car was really good straight out of the gate,” 2010 champion Courtney said.
“The car was quite good early at the Gold Coast as well, so we kept the same philosophy this weekend, it’s a bit like the Gold Coast’s bigger brother this circuit, just beefed it up slightly.
“The car was mint straight out, the guys did a great job and then we tuned it really well, only made one change that didn’t go the right way, but apart from that it was a really clean, nice session.”
Championship leader Will Brown, who ended up sixth, kicked off the Supercars action with a 1:20.7678s, with De Anton Pasquale splitting the two Triple Eight entries.
Qualifying will be run on Friday.
Watch Saturday’s race on SPEED SPORT 1.
