Pye crashes, Whincup quickest on dramatic Bathurst Thursday

A shock crash for Scott Pye has headlined a bizarre end to Thursday at the Repco Bathurst 1000, with Jamie Whincup setting the pace in Practice 2.

On a day Triple Eight should be celebrating ending up on top of the time sheets, the team is instead set for extensive overnight repairs after Pye clouted the concrete at the Cutting.

Sharing with championship leader Will Brown, Pye slid out of control and into the wall, with the #87 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet sustaining significant damage.

The session has initially been shortened from 60 to 40 minutes, following a 25-minute delay due to an oil spill and a rogue Eastern brown snake.

However, the session was declared early after Pye crashed at the Cutting, putting major pressure on points leader Brown after just one day in Bathurst.

Pye, who won the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 with Brown just four weeks ago, was apologetic to his team over the incident: "I just made a mistake, The Cutting is tricky, I don't know.

"I didn't think I was off line that much, but I just lost the rear and that it was it, it was game over."

Brown defended his co-driver, saying: "I guess get it out of the road before the race, it's one of those things, it's super easy to do, I've done it there, I think everyone's done it there.

"I'm sure Scotty will be a little upset with himself, but we'll get him back in the some high spirits before the race.

"I think it looks bad on TV obviously where it's torn out the wheel there, but hopefully it's not too bad. But you never know in these cars until you get them back here."

All told, Whincup put the #88 Red Bull Ampol entry on top by 0.0370s over Triple Eight stablemate Cooper Murray, with Jayden Ojeda and Todd Hazelwood making it an Erebus Motorsport three-four result.

Extensive clean-up of Conrod Straight was required after an historic touring car suffered a major failure, before an official was tasked with removing the snake from Forrest's Elbow.

After cars rolled out, Tony D'Alberto opened proceedings with a 2:09.7086s, ahead of Garth Tander, Whincup, Ojeda and James Moffat.

Pye was first to fall foul of the dirty entry to The Chase, running off the road onto the grass. Pye returned and recorded a 2:08.7851s, which was displaced by Tander (2:08.4162s), D'Alberto (2:08.4773s) and Ojeda (2:08.3438s).

Ojeda pressed on and went quicker with a 2:07.7485s, with Hazelwood (2:08.4764s), Whincup (2:08.5417s) and Tyler Everingham (2:08.1624s) moving into the top six.

Once Murray jumped to the top with a 2:07.5158s at the 15-minute mark, Warren Luff suffered a major scare with a high-speed spin through the Dipper.

The six-time Bathurst podium-finisher, however, somehow avoided contact with the wall and ended up 19th.

Into the final 25 minutes, Whincup put Triple Eight back on top with a 2:07.4788s, with Cameron impressing to fifth with a 2:08.1560s behind Murray, Ojeda and Hazelwood.

Lee Holdsworth, meanwhile, was sent onto the track with 17 minutes remaining, with the #25 losing 31 minutes due to suspected electrical, hydraulics and exhaust issues.

With the session declared due to Pye's crash, which occurred with 10 minutes remaining, Whincup led Murray, Ojeda, Hazelwood, David Russell, Aaron Cameron, Everingham, D'Alberto, Declan Fraser and Pye.

Holdsworth ended up 15th, behind Tander, Moffat, Dylan O'Keeffe and Dale Wood.

Supercars will be back on track for Practice 3 on Friday morning at 10:05am AEDT. Tickets for the Repco Bathurst 1000 are on sale now.