Jones on top in The Bend Rookie Practice

Macauley Jones has topped the Rookie Practice session at the Repco SuperSprint The Bend with a late flyer.

The Brad Jones Racing driver was fastest initially before snatching the spot back from Matt Stone Racing’s Garry Jacobson in the final minute of the 20-minute hit-out on The Bend’s International Circuit layout.

Jones’ 1:50.1797s was almost half a second up on the field after the top three had, at one point, been covered by less than four hundredths of a second during the latter half of the session.

Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Bryce Fullwood ended up third ahead of Team Sydney’s Chris Pither, BJR’s Jack Smith, and MSR’s Zane Goddard.

Jones (#3 CoolDrive ZB Commodore) had started off with a 1:51.8604s before Fullwood (#2 Mobil 1 Middy’s ZB Commodore) moved the benchmark to a 1:51.3831s on his second timed lap.

That stood until Jones’ fourth flyer, when he returned to the top with a 1:51.1574s just before pitting.

Jacobson (#35 Yellow Cover ZB Commodore) started his second run with a 1:51.1223s before Pither (#22 Coca-Cola ZB Commodore) moved into third with a time 0.0398s slower than the new fastest lap.

Jacobson improved further in the final minute to a 1:50.6633s and was then joined in the sub-1:51s by Fullwood.

However, Jones usurped both with his 1:50.1797s to end up quickest for the session, while Pither also found some more time to be last within a second of fastest, in fourth position.

All six drivers ran throughout on soft tyres, per the weekend allocation.

Practice 1 starts at 09:10 local time/09:40 AEST.

Results: Rookie Practice

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Fastest lap	Split
1	3	Team CoolDrive	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1:50.1797
2	35	Yellow Cover Racing	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	1:50.6633	0:00.4836
3	2	Mobil 1 TM Middy’s Racing	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1:50.7177	0:00.5380
4	22	Team SYDNEY	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	1:50.9567	0:00.7770
5	4	SCT Motor Sports	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	1:51.8392	0:01.6595
6	34	UNIT Racing	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	1:51.9110	0:01.7313