Toll Holden Racing Team driver Garth Tander has posted the quickest time in practice for the Sydney 500 at the new Olympic Park Street Circuit on Friday afternoon.
Tander clocked a time of 1:30.1032 to narrowly edge out Lee Holdsworth at the top of the timesheets.
"Will [Davison] and my cars were strong, as were all the Walkinshaw Commodores, and everyone's worked well together and we've got a good reward. But there's still work to do tonight, we need to improve, as everyone else will, as the pace will be quicker tomorrow," said Tander.
"The track is challenging and it's going to be hard work doing 250km around here on Saturday, then again Sunday. Managing the tyres will be the key, you have to be careful you don't use all your eggs tomorrow and have nothing left for Sunday."
"The track is good – it's got a mix of Hamilton, the Gold Coast and Adelaide, while there's tight, narrow sections and then areas like turn 1 where it opens up and is very wide. There will be good passing opportunities there and around the back in the last sector."
Shane Van Gisbergen was next fastest, while Tander's team-mate Will Davison and David Reynolds rounded out the top five.
Championship leader Jamie Whincup, who needs only to finish race one on Saturday to secure the drivers title, was down in 18th place, one second off the pace.
"We knew the track would be a challenge and spent most of today just learning the various corners and surface characteristics," said Whincup.
"It was virtually impossible to give any good feedback to the crew at the time, we'll go over the data later and figure out where we can make some gains and any changes needed to suit the track."
"It's been a big week for me and probably taken some of the focus off preparation, but I'm confident we'll be ready to go tomorrow."
Qualifying and the top 10 shootout will take place on Saturday morning before the first 84-lap race of the weekend in the afternoon.