Supercars news: Title contenders top final Adelaide 500 practice

The 30-minute session started at 10am, with temperatures already at 32-degrees ahead of a forecast 37-degree scorcher.

All 24 cars took part following miraculous overnight rebuilds from Team 18 and Matt Stone Racing on the Camaros crashed by David Reynolds and Cameron Hill in qualifying.

Grove Racing also had Richie Stanaway’s Mustang back in shape following its Turn 8 hit in qualifying.

The Kiwi gave the team a scare with a wild early off at the final hairpin, narrowly avoiding the left-side concrete wall.

Stanaway had gone wide at the penultimate corner and slid on a surface sporting the remnants of an engine failure and multi-car crash in the preceding Trans Am race.

The same part of the track caught out Aaron Love at the 10-minute mark – the BRT Mustang sliding sideways across the grass and making significant contact with the tyre wall.

Officials called for the red flags moments before Love extracted his Ford from the fence and headed back to the pits for minor panel repairs.

An early red flag as drivers attempt to avoid tricky track conditions 🚩

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— Supercars (@supercars) November 15, 2024

By that point Feeney had already set the 1:19.7649s lap that was not beaten for the duration, despite a flurry of late efforts.

Teammate Brown came closest with his final lap to slot in ahead of fellow late improver Thomas Randle.

Feeney will today attempt to prevent teammate Brown from securing the championship. They are currently separated by 180 points with 150 available for each Adelaide race win.

How Will Brown can win his first Supercars title today

“We were focused on Shootout sim, so we were just doing one-lap runs all session,” said Feeney of practice. “It’s hard work out there but I think we’re in a decent spot.”

Brodie Kostecki, Cam Waters, Will Davison, Andre Heimgartner, Matt Payne, Reynolds and James Golding completed the top 10.

Several teams performed a multitude of setup changes between runs in the session, including Tickford Racing.

“For whatever reason this weekend our car has not really been in the window,” explained Waters.

“They haven’t been that slow, but just hard to drive, so we’re trying to calm them down a little bit.

“It’s practice, so you may as well throw some stuff at them and see if you can get a direction to help you for quali or the rest of the weekend.”

Golding’s session included a near-miss with the Turn 4 exit barrier in his PremiAir Racing Camaro.

Wood teases the Turn 8 wall 🤯

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— Supercars (@supercars) November 16, 2024

Walkinshaw Andretti United’s tough weekend continued with Ryan Wood – whose session included a late clunk against the Turn 8 barrier – and Chaz Mostert just 14th and 16th respectively.

A Top 10 Shootout will take place at 12:35pm local time with an unusual mix of contenders following an early end to Friday qualifying.