Mark Skaife has rolled out his latest HRT car with great results today, tꦜo🐻pping the times on the opening day of practice for the Betta Electrical Sandown 500.

Skaife's quickest lap late in the day was just five hu✨ndredths quicker than John Bowe in an OzEmail Falcon, and was backed up with the sixth fastest time by co-driver Todd Kelly.

"It is a great debut for the new car, to wheel a new car out of the truck an♐d go that well is great," Skaife said. "We made a great deal of progress that session, it is responding well to changes, and we were on old tyres for the whol𒉰e of it.

"I'd say no-one was cruising around w🅷ith their arm on the win✅dow, so I think it is looking good."

John Bowe was a little mo🐈re circumspect, urging people to remember that it is only Friday.

"It is only Friday, so it doesn't really matter, but it is good so far," Bowe said, happy that the team chose to run his car here rather than Brad Jones normal #21. "We tested both cars at Winton and we both liked the black one bet🌜ter, so we decided to run it."

ꩵPaul Radisich made a late charge into fourth spot, setting his quickest time after the chequered flag closed the session. Radisich said his team was making a good fist of finding a balance between firmness for grip and sof♈tness to ride the bumps.

"You try to soften up the car a little to deal with the bumps, but it is all about the handling compromise ♛with firmne🍌ss for grip. It is a bumpy track," he said.

Co-driver Rickard Rydell from Sweden said he is coming to grips w𒁏ith the Falcon, which he said is very differen🔯t from the Volvo he races in Europe.

"The biggest difference is in the cars, there is a lot of power and no grip, it is not really w𒁃hat I am 💎used to," he said. "It is the gearchange and braking I need to work on."

The resurgent Paul Morris was fourth, and confident he and John Faulkner can co🏅ntinue his recent form and challenge for the race win on Sunday.

"This new car is really good🌳, it responds to changes," Morris said. "We've had two or three test days with it🎐, but we get the biggest gains at the circuits. There's no point in us being conservative at this point in time, the Championship is not part of the equation so we are just out for the win."

Fifth fastest was Marcos Ambrose in the #4 C♔altex Havoline Pirte𒆙k Falcon he is sharing with Championship leader Marcos Ambrose.

"We have slightly diffe🐟rent driving styles and we are just trying to find a compromise," Ambrose said. "We look to making the car comfortable first, and then we go for speed."

Ingall was more confident with the speed of his new car, predicting that once qualifying starts he and Ambrose will be the pace setters. "We are pretty comfortable with the car, we haven't chased a time yet, we haven't even broken into a𒁏 sweat. Just wait for 𒊎qualifying!"

The Sandown 500 is the first of the two driver endurance races for the season, and is returning to ౠthe calendar after a four year absence. Tomorrow's action sees qualifying and a Top 10 Shootout.