James Courtney led David Reynolds within the opening rehearsal of this weekend's Supercars Championship finale on the streets of Adelaide.
Reynolds, driving the Team18 Chevrolet Camaro, set the fastest time early within the session with a time of 1:19.8388 seconds, before Courtney edged him by 0.155 seconds and took Friday's honors in her Blanchard Racing Ford Mustang.
“The car was really good from the start,” he said. “I used to be fast on the Gold Coast on Friday, however it's a win for us, it's been a troublesome 12 months. It's getting faster, so we'll stiffen the automobile.
“It's the only place where we drive cars where they're on the edge. We love a rush and this place delivers that rush.”
Reynolds was in first place at first before he and his team “changed things up and slowed it down”, but looks confident heading into the weekend.
The third best results of the session was Nick Percat within the Matt Stone Racing Chevrolet, ahead of one other veteran, Will Davison within the Dick Johnson Racing Ford.
By the tip of the session, Chaz Mostert had moved into fifth place for Walkinshaw Andretti United, just ahead of points leader Will Brown. Both Triple Eight Chevrolet drivers focused mainly on set-up and race pace throughout the session, with Broc Feeney ending thirteenth.
Seventh fastest within the session was Brodie Kostecki, who left the session early after a crash caused front-end damage to his Erebus Motorsport Chevrolet.
Brown enters the weekend with a 180-point lead over Feeney, the one driver competing for the title. With 150 points available for winning each race, even when Feeney wins for a sixth time on Saturday and Brown finishes fourth, the latter could seal the title in the ultimate provided he finishes twenty fourth or higher (out of 25 starting).
Supercars will return to motion on Friday, with drivers taking to the track at 1.05pm Central Australian Summer Time for a 30-minute rehearsal. The qualifying session for Saturday's race will start at 5:30 p.m., and the stakes might be set from eleventh place.
