Luff puts Holden on top in second Bathurst practice

Luff and Prodrive driver Dean Canto traded fastest laps in the closing minutes of the session, Luff ultimately claiming top spot with a 2m07.203s.

He could have gone even faster had it not been for a close encounter with the wall across the top of The Mountain on his next lap, which luckily only caused a small bit of cosmetic damage.

“On that last lap I just tagged the wall over the top, obviously trying quite hard,” he said.

“But very happy with the balance of the car, the guys made some big improvements between Practice 1 and this session. Hopefully we can keep that momentum going forward.”

Canto finished up second, while last-gasp improver Steven Richards was third fastest in the #888 Red Bull Commodore.

Frenchman Alex Premat was impressively quick in the #33 Volvo, banking the fourth fastest time ahead of Prodrive’s Cameron Waters.

Oliver Gavin was the best of the Brits in the field with sixth fastest for LD Motorsport, while Dean Fiore led the way for the Nissan squad with the eighth fastest time.

Marcos Ambrose made a mid-field Bathurst return, the Penske driver 16th fastest.

Bathurst debutant Sebastien Bourdais made a cautious start to his weekend, going 23rd fastest, with wildcard driver Renee Gracie last – although she did manage to go slightly faster than team-mate Simona De Silvestro went in today’s first session.

David Russell, meanwhile, became the first man into the wall for the 2015 Bathurst 1000 weekend. The Jack Daniel’s Nissan driver was running fifth, before he lost the back end of his Altima at The Cutting and wound up in the wall.

The car took no further part in the session.