Having rolled 'Chassis 10' out of retirement for the second round of the V8 Supercar Championship at Eastern Creek, Team Vodafone enjoyed a solid start to the weekend in Sydney with Craig Lowndes posting the seventh quickest time in Friday practice.
With the team forced to bring back its most successful car after Lowndes' own machine was damaged at the Clipsal 500, 'Chassis 10' underwent a number of upgrades to bring it up to 2008 specification before hitting the track at a race meeting for the first time since last season's Sandown 500.
Quickest for the day across the first sector of the track, Lowndes acknowledged he made an error on what would have been his fastest lap and said the car was living up to its reputation as he ended the opening day of running with the seventh quickest lap-time.
"We worked on race setup and a qualifying package over the course of the practice season and we now have a good handle on our race setup for tomorrow afternoons race," he explained. "I am disappointed in myself, as the car in qualifying spec is actually a lot better than what I showed it to be. I made a small driver error on what would have been my fastest lap, when I dropped the right rear tyre off the rack at the back of Corporate Hill.
"It was good to be back in 'Chassis 10' and on one of my favourite tracks."
Team-mate Jamie Whincup posted the sixth fastest time, although he admitted that the extremely hot track surface made it difficult to set the car up.
"We experienced conditions today that we have not seen here for a very long time," he said. "The track temperature was very high and we could only do short runs. The reality is that we need to do 31 laps here in each race and if the temperature is the same as today, tyre life could be an issue.
"I am not yet 100 per cent happy with myself or the car so we have some homework to do tonight."
