Championship leader Matt Payne delivered a statement to his rivals that he will be the driver to hunt in Perth after blitzing the field in practice as Broc Feeney warned Triple Eight still had a \u201cfair bit to work on\u201d if it was to mount a serious fightback.<\/p>\n
The New Zealand Grove Racing star upstaged his closest combatants in the championship fight at Wanneroo Raceway on Friday, finishing more than two-tenths ahead of the rest of the field.<\/p>\n
Payne finished at the top of the standings after the final practice session on Friday with his 54.666sec lap ahead of Feeney and Dick Johnson Racing\u2019s Brodie Kostecki.<\/p>\n
The Bathurst 1000 champion enters the Perth Super 440 with a 92-point lead over Feeney in the driver standings after a super-consistent mid-season run in which he has claimed seven podiums in the past eight races, including victory in the second race in Townsville.<\/p>\n
Payne was clearly pleased with the early pace he showed on Friday, but was confident there was still more he could extract from his Ford Mustang for the weekend\u2019s races.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely made some steps forward in the second (practice),\u201d Payne said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the longer run we did, we felt pretty competitive and then we threw tyres on it and just seemed to get better, so it\u2019s really good.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a couple of things we can tune overnight, but if we get the car out there like we did today I don\u2019t think there is any trouble trying to do well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have just got to keep doing what we are doing, I am really enjoying giving this car a good run \u2026 it\u2019s really nice to drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to have the margin, but it\u2019s such a busy day tomorrow, there are a lot of qualifying sessions and there are a lot of laps you have got to put out to get through to all the different legs so for sure these guys are going to speed up and we have to try to speed up too.\u201d<\/p>\n
After testing weekends in Darwin and Townsville, Feeney was hopeful of a turnaround in form for Triple Eight after two rounds for the team without a podium.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old was encouraged by his early pace, but said the Ford squad still had plenty of work to do to get \u201cmore performance back\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c(It was) a bit better today, a lot more competitive I would say out of the gate for the first run,\u201d Feeney said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried a few things, which was good, but feeling a bit more competitive.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is always working very hard but I would say for the past couple of months \u2013 I don\u2019t want to say extra hard \u2013 but looking more into some different types of things and what we can do to get a bit more performance back. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still not the fastest car so we have still got a fair bit to work on, but I think they have done a great job, they have tried some stuff over the last couple of rounds. Townsville we tried some stuff, it didn\u2019t work, we didn\u2019t have the most competitive cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe keep trying some things, trying to learn our toolbox for this car. That\u2019s our biggest thing at the moment, trying to understand what makes this car go fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
A last-start winner in Townsville, West Australian-born Kostecki is chasing his maiden victory at his home track in Perth, but <\/p>\n
\u201cThe car feels OK, it was pretty good on its tyre I thought,\u201d Kostecki said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll just go through our program tonight and see if we can sharpen it up a little bit. It wasn\u2019t so good on the green and it didn\u2019t feel like I maximised it either.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is probably a little bit more in it from my point of view, but we still need to tune it up to catch Matty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tickford Racing duo Thomas Randle and Cam Waters, lining up in his 150th Supercars round, completed an all-Ford top five in Friday\u2019s final practice session.<\/p>\n
But there were two surprise names near the bottom of the time sheet with Walkinshaw TWG Racing pair Ryan Wood and Chaz Mostert sitting 20th and 21st.<\/p>\n
PremiAir Racing\u2019s Declan Fraser, whose form has been under the spotlight this season, was the best of the Chevrolet drivers. <\/p>\n
While Payne pace grabbed the headlines, there was trouble for his young teammate Kai Allen after he ran off the track at turn one and into the sand trap, forcing him back to the garage for repairs.<\/p>\n
Allen lost valuable time on track while his crew worked feverishly to fix damage under his car to get him back on track for what was left of the second short 25-minute session. <\/p>\n
He finished 17th fastest, having banged doors with Wood following his return to the track late in the session. <\/p>\n
In the opening practice session, Jayden Ojeda celebrated his 27th birthday by leading home a PremiAir Racing one-two ahead of teammate Fraser.<\/p>\n
Ojeda topped the field in the first hitout on track with his 55.401sec lap from Fraser, Aaron Cameron, Allen and Jack Le Brocq.<\/p>\n
The Supercars field returns to the track on Saturday at Wanneroo for a pair of qualifying sessions and two 50-lap races.<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Championship leader Matt Payne delivered a statement to his rivals that he will be the driver to 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