Heimgartner quickest, double trouble for Erebus

Brad Jones Racing driver Andre Heimgartner has set the pace in the Warm Up session for the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, which was headlined by a pit lane incident for Erebus Motorsport.

Heimgartner drove the #8 R&J Batteries Chevrolet to a best time of 1:08.6344s midway through the 20-minute hit-out.

The Kiwi was just 0.0411s quicker than Thomas Randle, with Tim Slade, Garth Tander and Jamie Whincup rounding out the top five.

There were problems down at Erebus, however, with the Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood car dropped before the right-rear wheel had been fastened.

The reigning champions could be facing a fine over the dramatic incident, with the Kostecki/Hazelwood car 11th on the time sheets.

"It was a change on the back. We were practicing a change for the race, and it took longer than the driver change, which caught out the car controller, he said drop the car, and the change wasn't actually finished," Erebus CEO Barry Ryan said.

"It's just a procedural thing, we'll fix it, and it'll be fine."

The sister Jack Le Brocq/Jayden Ojeda sister entry, meanwhile, was sidelined for the entire session with a suspected fuel pressure issue.

Ryan added: "It's strange, it was perfect in qualifying yesterday, and then straight out of the gate today we had a fuel pressure drama.

"We didn't want to risk the engine, so we just brought it in, put some fuel pumps in it, and we should be fine for the race."

Team 18 veteran Mark Winterbottom opened proceedings with a 1:10.2786s before Heimgartner went ahead with a 1:10.1829s.

Cameron Hill showed pace in his Matt Stone Racing entry, clocking a 1:09.4586s, before moving the number to a 1:09.0161s.

Randle was first into the 1:08s bracket with a 1:08.9023s, before Heimgartner fired in a 1:08.6344s that proved the benchmark by session’s end.

Tander, driving Matt Payne’s Penrite Ford, moved to third with a 1:08.9230s, with Whincup putting Broc Feeney’s car into fourth with s 1:09.9295s.

Pole-sitters Will Brown and Scott Pye ended up ninth courtesy of the former’s efforts in the #87 Red Bull Ampol Camaro.

Race start for the first enduro of the 2024 season is 2:05pm AEST.