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Herne edges Mawson in tight S5000 Adelaide debut
NATHAN HERNE pipped Joey Mawson at the very end of S5000 Tasman Series practice on the streets of Adelaide to top the opening day of action at the VALO Adelaide 500.
Both 25-minute practice sessions were red flag interrupted on Thursday, however through it all Nathan Herne was the man to beat.
His 1m18.0456s best set in the dying seconds of practice two was just 0.028s quicker than Joey Mawson.
Aaron Cameron was third quickest overall, just 0.2 seconds behind the leading pair, with Jordan Boys in fourth.
The times were the quickest recorded in any practice or qualifying session in Adelaide 500 history and indicate the cars will dip well beneath the outright circuit lap record in racing conditions tomorrow.
Both sessions were segmented by delays as drivers found the early limits of the resurfaced Adelaide street circuit.
S5000 rookie Brad Gartner crashed at turn one in the opening session, though his car was repaired in time for practice two.
The second session was delayed twice, the first time after Mark Rosser spun at turn one and ended up beached on the exit kerb at the Senna chicane.
The session had only just restarted before Sebastian Amadio and Tim Macrow made contact at turn four, the former turning across the latter and being launched into the air – ending up in the fence and out of the session.
A final flourish saw a five-minute shootout with the quickest times of the day all being set in the last moments of practice two.
Behind Herne, Cameron, Mawson and Boys, Ben Bargwanna was the next best with another strong run to fifth.
Noah Sands was sixth, while Giancarlo Fisichella was seventh – just over one second behind Herne’s quickest time.
Cooper Webster, Tim Macrow and Blake Purdie completed the top 10.
Jude Bargwanna was eleventh, Mark Rosser 12th with Elly Morrow, Brad Gartner and Sebastian Amadio next.
The S5000 Tasman Series returns for qualifying at 10:30am tomorrow, followed by race one at 2:55pm.
Both sessions will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 506 and Kayo.