Stone Brothers Racing duo James Courtney and Shane van Gisbergen used the opening practice session at Eastern Creek to acclimatise to new surroundings ahead of the second round of the V8 Supercar Championship season.
With his own car damaged in the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, Courtney found himself at the wheel of the team's 2005 championship winning chassis for the opening practice session, although it was a session that didn't go totally to plan as he spent half an hour in the pits following a split oil line on the BF Ford Falcon.
Courtney ended the day with the 15th quickest time although he admitted afterwards that it hadn't been the easiest day on track.
“It was a tough day today,” he said. “The JELD-WEN Falcon broke an oil line just as I went out for my first session so that put us in the pits for the first 30 minutes.
“We played catch up after that; we never had it at any point. We struggled for grip then when we started to hit on it I got held up in some traffic. It was one of those days.
“We feel that we should have been around tenth fastest. With some work tonight I'm sure we will come out firing tomorrow.”
van Gisbergen also used the practice session as a shakedown of sorts ahead of his debut race at the Eastern Creek venue. He ended the day with the 17th fastest time at the wheel of the SP Tools car and said he was close to being where he wanted to be going into the weekend.
“My first run here at Eastern Creek was okay,” he said. “It's a pretty tough circuit and it's hard on tyres.
“We set a pretty good time at the end and it's not far off where we hoped to be at this stage. We got up as high as fourth when we put our second set of tyres on early. That gave us direction with the SP Tools Racing Falcon and gave us something to work on.
“Today was about learning the track and settling in. We have some changes to make to the car and we should be good for tomorrow.”
![Shane van Gisbergen - SP Tools Ford Falcon [Pic credit: Stone Brothers Racing]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/414022.jpg)
