Brown tops Bathurst Warm Up, Payne suffers big off

Championship leader Will Brown has set the pace in morning Warm Up at the Repco Bathurst 1000, which was headlined by a big off for Matt Payne.

Payne, who will start seventh for Sunday's Great Race, launched through the sand at The Chase, triggering a red flag with four minutes remaining.

The session was declared due to the off, with Brown quickest with a 2:06.6553s.

"Yeah, that was pretty scary, actually," said Penrite Racing driver Payne, who qualified on provisional pole on Friday.

"I was on a pretty good lap, just pinched the right front heading into The Chase, like straight away. It's pretty hard to stop down there.

"But good to get it out of the system now, instead of this afternoon."

Brown's Triple Eight teammate Jamie Whincup was second with a 2:07.0155s, with Will Davison third in the repaired Shell V-Power Ford following his big Friday crash.

Davison set the early pace with a 2:08.5418s ahead of Brown, with Coulthard locking up and running long at Hell Corner immediately after going third with a 2:08.6785s.

Brown went fastest with a 2:07.4959s before Whincup went nearly 0.5s clear of his teammate with a 2:07.0155s. Brown pressed on and turned in a 2:06.6553s to regain top spot, with Davison and Lee Holdsworth behind.

Several teams looked to bed in changes and processes, with gearboxes changed on the Matt Chahda Motorsport wildcard and Cameron Hill/Cameron Crick cars, and a planned engine change for the Cam Waters/James Moffat Ford.

The James Courtney/Jack Perkins missed the session altogether after a pre-session gearbox change uncovered an issue in the Snowy River Caravans Mustang.

The pole-sitting Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood car was one of many not to fire a shot and ended up 25th.

The 161-lap Race 20 will commence at 11:30am. Tickets for the Repco Bathurst 1000 are on sale now.