Bundaberg Red Racing’s Fabian Coulthard and Andrew Thompson have finished today’s opening practice sessions at Symmons Plains in Tasmania in 19th and 27th place on the timing sheets.

Both Coulthard and Thompson were eligible to participate in all four session today, with Practice 1 and 2 reserved for the drivers in the bottom half of the Championship.

Coulthard had a solid first two sessions in the #24 Bundy Red Commodore, finishing third fastest in Practice 1 and fourth in Practice 2. The Kiwi later said his Walkinshaw Racing Commodore felt comfortable to drive around the short and twisty Tasmanian circuit.

Coulthard was again consistent in the third half hour stint and he continued to push the Bundy Commodore to its limits in the final part of practice. However, he took an excursion into the grass at Turn 2 towards the end of the session which ended his day five minutes from the finish. His time was good enough for 19th place overall.

Like Coulthard, Thompson also contested all four half hour track sessions. Thompson battled away, fighting traffic to eventually post a best time that secured 27th place on the timing sheets.

The Falken Tasmania Challenge continues tomorrow with qualifying, the top ten shootout and the first race of the weekend.

Fabian Coulthard - #24 Bundaberg Red Racing Commodore:

“I am actually quite happy and comfortable in the #24 Bundy Red Racing Commodore. It is a nice car to drive which I think was reflected in the first two sessions. Later on in the day we went out in the final two sessions when we probably didn’t have the best tyre quality. It made the car a little bit more difficult to handle but heading into qualifying, relative to where we were at the end of today, we should be able to finish higher up.”

Andrew Thompson - #10 Bundaberg Red Racing Commodore: 

“We have a pretty good run, we managed to contest all four practice sessions without any issues so it was good to be able to maximise all of our practice time. We tried to take a number of different directions with the car just to see what was going to work and what wasn’t and I think we were able to get a lot out of today. We didn’t end up running any green tyres but I think once we do put those  on in qualifying tomorrow we will see an improvement.”