Steve Owen tops final co-driver only practice session at Bathurst

Steve Owen was fastest in the final practice session for co-drivers only on Friday morning at Mount Panorama. The Ford Performance Racing driver set a time of 2:06.777, four-tenths off of the ultimate pace set yesterday afternoon by David Reynolds in the #55 Rod Nash Racing Ford Falcon.

The Fords looked strong throughout the session, with Ash Walsh in the #16 Dick Johnson Racing Ford Falcon, and the #55 and #5 Ford Performance Racing-run cars of Dean Canto and Steve Owen swapping times at the top of the time sheets for the first 15 minutes.

After that, the Triple Eight Holdens bolted to the front, with Steven Richards fastest of all in the #888 car which he shares with Craig Lowndes this weekend, and Paul Dumbrell second fastest in the #1 car.

The Triple Eight cars held those positions for another twenty minutes, before improvements began to come fast in the final ten minutes, with first Dean Canto taking back over at the top in the #55 Rod Nash Racing Ford before Alex Prémat became the first driver to set a time in the 2:06s on Friday in the Volvo Polestar Raicng S60.

With just under a minute remaining, Luke Youlden then went faster still in the Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore, before he was quickly pipped by just two-hundredths of a second by Steve Owen in the #5 Ford Performance Racing Falcon, who ended the session fastest of all, with the top three drivers all in the 2:06s.

Taz Douglas was fourth for Nissan, ensuring four different manufacturers occupied the top four positions, with Dean Canto finishing fifth.

With Dean Fiore sixth and Alex Buncombe seventh, Nissan had three drivers in the top ten. Cameron Waters was eighth in the Charlie Schwerkolt Racing Ford Falcon, with Tony D’Alberto ninth in the Walkinshaw Racing Holden and with Steven Richards rounding out the top ten for Triple Eight.

The only notable incident of the session was for Ash Walsh, who clipped the wall with the rear of his Ford with just under ten minutes to go, but the damage is mainly superficial.

The second practice session of the day, with all drivers able to take part, gets underway at 13:10 AEST.