An early fire and some rookie desire set the scene at the home of horsepower in the opening day of Practice at Sandown Raceway today.

A small oil fire in Lee Holdsworth’s car #500 caught the attention of the crew early in Practice 1 to open proceedings, before they quickly rectified the problem and got Holdsworth back on track where he recorded the 18th fastest time, while David Reynolds showed strong speed on the way to 7th quickest in car #26.

Later in the afternoon, Supercars rookie Matt Payne climbed aboard Holdsworth’s Mustang for the co-driver only Practice 2, doing a solid job as the Super2 race winner came to grips with the car and circuit.

DRIVER COMMENT

Matt Payne, said: “It was good to get my confidence up before we get to Bathurst with some laps in Lee’s car. I ran on SuperSoft tyres which was a first for me, I didn’t really have any expectations coming into the session but it’s good just to get laps in a main game Supercar.”

“Lee is a little bit shorter than me so my legs are bent slightly in the car, but it doesn’t bother me at all because I’ve become used to having different seating positions across all the endurance racing in GT that I’ve done.

“I’m looking forward to racing in the Bathurst 1000 for the first time, I watched every race on TV at home in New Zealand as a kid, so to compete in it will be very cool.”

RESULTS

Practice 1

Reynolds: P7

Holdsworth: P18

Practice 2 Co-driver session

Payne: P14

Reynolds and Holdsworth are back on track tomorrow for Practice 3, Qualifying, a Top 10 Shoutout and Race 24 of the championship.