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AAP
AAP
Sport
Fraser Barton

Chevrolets set pace at Townsville Supercars practice

Jack Le Brocq's Chevrolet Camaro was quickest in practice ahead of the Supercars Townsville 500. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Chevrolet Camaros continue to set the pace as Supercars hits the streets of Townsville, even after a review aimed at levelling the playing field and tweaks to the competing Ford Mustangs.

Camaros have crossed the line first in all of the 15 races this season, dominating the series since the 2023 championship's introduction of Gen3 models.

That trend continued at Townsville's Reid Park opening practice session on Friday, with Camaros making up eight of the top 10 and only five Chevrolets outside the leading pack.

There were slight improvements in the second session, with three Mustangs cracking the top 10 and Cam Waters finishing third overall, but Ford teams are still figuring out their setups after changes were introduced in an attempt to increase parity.

Following the last series event in Darwin in mid-June, Supercars triggered a review to identify imbalances among the competing makes.

Officials analysed lap times across a number of races to determine any existing disparity and found a minor difference in the rear downforce of the Mustang and its performance in braking zones.

Waters said his initial laps in Friday's P1 were a struggle but was glad officials had implemented changes in a bid to increase competitiveness.

"Braking was our achilles heel before, and we kind of tuned things into the car to make that better and better," he told Fox Sports.

"We got here and the thing was 'Mr Plow' (a ploughing truck), I couldn't turn it.

"It's nice that (the review) actually found a few things and they backed up what we were saying.

"Credit to Supercars and DJR (Dick Johnson Racing), everyone that put these changes forward to try and help us.

"We've just got to work out how to make it go fast now."

Jack Le Brocq was the fastest driver on Friday with a 1:13.432 lap time in practice two.

Bryce Fullwood went second fastest ahead of Waters and New Zealanders Shane van Gisbergen and Andre Heimgartner.

Championship leader Brodie Kostecki only completed seven laps in P1 after dealing with a steering-rack issue and finished in the middle of the pack following the second session.

Qualifying for race 16 of the season begins at 10.15am local time on Saturday before a top-10 shootout to determine the final grid spots.

The first of two 250-kilometre races around Reid Park kicks off at 2.40pm on Saturday.

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