Hillyer and Lodge on the pace
The heat was brought to the first electric day of the 64th Bathurst 1000 with Matt Hillyer and James Lodge the early pace setters in the Toyota GAZOO Racing GR Cup.
Matthew Hillyer took the fastest lap of the opening practice session with a time of 2:36.430, completing 5 laps for the session
Hillyer is in impressive form, following a clean sweep in Sandown taking home victories in all 3 races for the 3rd round.
Hillyer’s Walkinshaw Andretti United Toyota will be one to watch going into qualifying and the races from Friday Morning.
He however was challenged by the No.39 car of James Lodge, who was seven tenths off the pace with a time of 2:37.185.
The 35 Toyota engines were back on track at 12:45pm, where Lodge took the edge from Hillyer.
Lodge completed practice two with his second lap of 2:35.729, clinching the new fastest lap on day one of racing at the circuit.
The climb up the hill did lead to a slight oversteer going into the first corner, but the drivers recovered well on flying laps.
The slight use of the curb can make or break a lap, seeing competitors extremely close to the walls of the track into the apex of the turn.
The strain on the cars with the correction of oversteer led to drivers suffering suspension damage, that can luckily be restored going into the rest of the weekends schedule.
With nine minutes to go in the first practice the number 91 car of Logan Everleigh hit the tire wall, causing a yellow flag for the session.
After the field was neutralised and the damaged car made its way back to the pits the session only shortly resumed, with Hillyer holding onto his fastest lap of practice one.
Practice two saw the now established track producing faster sectors, Lodge giving the first 2 minute 35 lap around Mt Panorama.
The session had moments of oversteer throughout the 6.213km circuit but concluded with no flags waved.
After a sunny opening day, the record times are predicted to be broken over the next two days of the round.
Image: Peter Norton EPIC Sports Photography
2024 Bathurst 1000
Practice 1: 1: Matt Payne 2:07.2941 2: Cameron Waters +0.0366 3: Will Brown +0.0373
Practice 2: 1: J. Whincup 2:07.4788 2: C. Murray +0.0370 3: J. Ojeda +0.1860
Practice 3: Fri 10.05-11.05 (all drivers)
Practice 4: Fri 13.05-14.05 (all drivers)
Qualifying: Fri 16.15-16.55
Practice 5: Sat 10.05-11.05 (co drivers)
Practice 6: Sat 13.05-14.05 (all drivers)
Top 10 Shootout: Sat 17.05
Warm up: Sun 8.15-8.35
Bathurst 1000: Sun 11.30 (161 laps)
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