Bathurst 1000: Holdsworth fastest as crash halts practice
Lee Holdsworth set the pace in a Thursday co-driver practice that was cut short by a nasty crash for Chris Pither.
Holdsworth (Walkinshaw Andretti United) was sitting just under four-tenths clear of the field with less than two minutes to go when Pither hit the wall at Forrest's Elbow.
The Coca-Cola-backed car tagged the inside wall before clattering into the concrete on the outside.
It was the second major issue for the #96 Brad Jones Racing entry today after the car was sidelined for nearly all of Practice 1 with a power steering issue.
The early phase of the day's second hour-long session saw Holdsworth and Tony D'Alberto (Dick Johnson Racing) trading fastest times.
D'Alberto led the way as the benchmark sat at a low 2m07s, before Holdsworth became the first driver into the sixes with a 2m06.906s.
The next run saw D'Alberto improve to a 2m06.858s, before Holdsworth went faster again on consecutive laps with a 2m06.771s followed by a 2m06.401s.
On the 25-minute mark Erebus driver David Russell took over at the top with a 2m06.357s, that time holding up for 10 minutes until Craig Lowndes (Triple Eight) jumped to the top with a 2m06.164s.
With a little under a quarter of an hour to go Garth Tander (Triple Eight) and Alex Davison (Dick Johnson Racing) both took turns on top with low 2m06s laps.
Then, with 10 minutes to go, James Moffat (Tickford) burst into the fives with a 2m05.603s.
That initially left him almost half a second clear of the field, before Moffat was bumped down to second by Holdsworth's 2m05.225 – a time only a tenth wide of primary driver Chaz Mostert's Practice 1 effort.
"It's nice. These guys had a really quick car at the start of the year here and Chazzy dialled it in a bit more this morning for me to jump in and have a little bit of fun around the Mountain," said Holdsworth.
"I'm driving a lot more like [Chaz] this year, just from the way I've learnt to drive his car. So everything that's working for me is working for him and vice versa.
"It's great, it's a great combination."
Moffat and Davison ended up second and third ahead of Tander, while a late effort from Dean Fiore left him fifth for Brad Jones Racing.
Lowndes slipped back to sixth ahead of Luke Youlden (Erebus Motorsport), Zak Best (Tickford) and D'Alberto.
Russell rounded out the Top 10.
High-profile co-driver Russell Ingall, making his comeback in the Supercheap Auto-backed T8 wildcard entry, was slowest in the session, 3.2 seconds off the pace.
Bathurst 1000 Practice 2 results
| Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 |  Chaz Mostert Lee Holdsworth | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'05.225 | ||
| 2 | 6 | Cameron Waters James Moffat | Ford Mustang GT | 2'05.603 | 0.377 | 0.377 |
| 3 | 17 | Will Davison Alex Davison | Ford Mustang GT | 2'06.055 | 0.829 | 0.451 |
| 4 | 888 |  Shane van Gisbergen Garth Tander | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'06.094 | 0.868 | 0.039 |
| 5 | 14 | Todd Hazelwood Dean Fiore | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'06.164 | 0.938 | 0.069 |
| 6 | 88 | Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'06.164 | 0.938 | 0.000 |
| 7 | 26 | David Reynolds Luke Youlden | Ford Mustang GT | 2'06.277 | 1.051 | 0.113 |
| 8 | 5 | Jack Le Brocq Zak Best | Ford Mustang GT | 2'06.332 | 1.107 | 0.055 |
| 9 | 11 | Anton De Pasquale Tony D’Alberto | Ford Mustang GT | 2'06.355 | 1.129 | 0.022 |
| 10 | 99 | Brodie Kostecki David Russell | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'06.357 | 1.131 | 0.001 |
| 11 | 7 | Andre Heimgartner Matt Campbell | Ford Mustang GT | 2'06.429 | 1.203 | 0.072 |
| 12 | 44 | James Courtney Thomas Randle | Ford Mustang GT | 2'06.476 | 1.250 | 0.047 |
| 13 | 2 | Bryce Fullwood Warren Luff | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'06.524 | 1.298 | 0.048 |
| 14 | 3 | Tim Slade Tim Blanchard | Ford Mustang GT | 2'06.737 | 1.511 | 0.213 |
| 15 | 9 | Will Brown Jack Perkins | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'06.829 | 1.604 | 0.092 |
| 16 | 20 | Scott Pye James Golding | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'06.926 | 1.700 | 0.096 |
| 17 | 96 | Macauley Jones Chris Pither | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'06.926 | 1.700 | 0.000 |
| 18 | 8 | Nick Percat Dale Wood | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'06.963 | 1.738 | 0.037 |
| 19 | 4 | Jack Smith David Wall | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'07.057 | 1.831 | 0.093 |
| 20 | 19 | Fabian Coulthard Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'07.126 | 1.900 | 0.068 |
| 21 | 34 | Jake Kostecki Kurt Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'07.208 | 1.982 | 0.082 |
| 22 | 18 | Mark Winterbottom Michael Caruso | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'07.332 | 2.106 | 0.123 |
| 23 | 35 | Zane Goddard Jayden Ojeda | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'07.389 | 2.163 | 0.056 |
| 24 | 22 | Garry Jacobson Dylan O’Keeffe | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'08.030 | 2.804 | 0.641 |
| 25 | 39 | Broc Feeney  Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore ZB | 2'08.443 | 3.218 | 0.413 |
| View full results | ||||||
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