Warren Luff puts Holden quickest for the first time in 2020 Bathurst practice

Walkinshaw Andretti United driver and multiple podium finisher at the Bathurst 1000 Warren Luff has gone fastest in the Saturday morning practice session for this weekend’s Great Race.

The veteran driver notched up his fastest ever lap at Mount Panorama in a Supercar in a session that was dominated by race runs rather than qualifying preparations for the field, Luff nonetheless pushing to show the pace of the #25 car which will feature in this afternoon’s shootout in the hands of Chaz Mostert.

Saturday’s first red flag came out thanks to a driveline failure for the #12 DJR Team Penske entry of Tony D’Alberto, pulling up down the escape road at Murray’s Corner and having to be recovered by the tow truck with just over 15 minutes having elapsed in practice.

Garth Tander showed the speed of Triple Eight’s #97 Commodore, having put in a 2:06 flat before the red flag followed by the first 2:05 of the day when running resumed, some six-tenths of a second clear of the field at the time.

Race runs were the flavour of the day in the co-driver session as the hour-long outing was the last dedicated session for the secondary pilots over the weekend, all the field getting comfortable in their cars before tomorrow’s race and the top ten main drivers from yesterday’s qualifying prepare for the shootout this afternoon.

Warren Luff was able to beat former team-mate Tander’s time with 15 minutes left to run, a 2:05.4597 well and truly on the pace for the Walkinshaw Andretti United #25 car which he was then on track to beat on his next lap, setting a new best sector one time before bailing out on the lap.

No quicker times were posted for the rest of the session, Luff staying on top ahead of Thomas Randle who put the #8 Brad Jones Racing car to second position ahead of Tander as James Moffat from Tickford Racing continued on his strong form off the back of going quickest in practice two to take fourth place.

David Russell put in one of the best performances of the session to go fifth for Matt Stone Racing, slotting in ahead of Dale Wood’s Kelly Racing #15 and Will Davison in the Tickford #6 car which has topped three sessions so far this weekend.

Rounding out the top ten was Will Brown (Erebus Motorsport), Zane Goddard in the repaired MSR Commodore and Jordan Boys in his BJR machine which was crashed in practice yesterday. Both the #17 DJRTP car of Tim Slade and the Triple Eight #888 Craig Lowndes entry missed out on the ten, focusing on race runs rather than shootout preparation.

The weekend’s final official practice session starts at 1135 local time followed by a long break before the Top Ten Shootout, going green at 1705 with rain forecasted throughout at this stage.