Brodie Kostecki ended Friday at Symmons Plains with the fastest time of the day, but it took until the dying minutes of Practice 2 to lock down the Tyrepower Tasmania Super 440 timing screens.
The Shell V-Power Racing Ford driver's 50.9478s eclipsed the previous benchmark and held off Repco Sprint Cup rival Matt Payne by just 0.0098 of a second. PremiAir Racing rookie Jayden Ojeda was the surprise of the session in third, becoming the only other driver to dip into the 50-second bracket on the freshly upgraded Tasmanian circuit.
The session had spent most of its 25 minutes in Chevrolet hands. Anton De Pasquale and Practice 1 pacesetter David Reynolds spent stints on top for Team 18, with Reynolds eventually setting a 51.0286s on the first lap of his final run, the fastest mark of the weekend at that point. Kai Allen slotted into third for a Team 18 1-2-3 at the 10-minute mark before Andre Heimgartner, then Payne and finally Kostecki rewrote the top of the screen in happy hour.
At the chequer the order was Kostecki, Payne and Ojeda, ahead of Reynolds, Heimgartner, De Pasquale, Cameron Hill, Ryan Wood, Chaz Mostert and Will Brown. Repco Sprint Cup championship leader Broc Feeney, who has carried significant momentum into the Tasmania round, only managed 15th and slipped just behind Cam Waters as the field traded laps in the final run.
The Toyota effort, which arrived in Tasmania still hunting balance and reliability across its first season in Supercars, again hit problems. Walkinshaw TWG Racing was forced to bleed the brakes on both Mostert and Wood's GR Supras during the session, while Brad Jones Racing drivers Andre Heimgartner and Macauley Jones both ran long at Turn 4 in separate incidents. When Wood eventually returned to the circuit he was straight back on the pace, slotting comfortably into the top five and underlining the underlying speed of the package once the issues are contained.
PremiAir Racing's strong Tasmanian form continued beyond Ojeda. Declan Fraser briefly jumped to second mid-session and finished comfortably inside the leading group, while Jackson Walls rose to sixth at one point ahead of the Red Bull Ampol Racing pair of Brown and Feeney. The team's run on a track that has historically been kinder to Triple Eight and Erebus suggests Symmons Plains has reshuffled the deck at the front.
For Kostecki, the headline matters but the gap to Payne is what underscores the storyline of the weekend. The Shell Ford and the Grove Racing Ford have traded blows for much of 2026, and the entire Practice 2 picture finished with less than a tenth covering the leading Chevrolet of Reynolds in fourth. Kostecki is also chasing a return to the form that took him to victory at the Christchurch Super 440 and a strong New Zealand swing earlier in the year.
James Golding was on course to crack the top five before riding through the grass at Turn 7, while De Pasquale's late effort briefly elevated Team 18 back to a 1-2 inside the final 10 minutes. The session was punctuated by a stack of off-track moments rather than full incidents, with no significant red flags impacting the field's preparation for qualifying.
Supercars action at Symmons Plains continues on Saturday with Boost Mobile Qualifying for Race 14 at 10am local time. The opening race of the weekend follows, with the squabble at the front of Friday practice suggesting another tight Tasmanian battle once it counts.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/kostecki-payne-ojeda-symmons-plains-practice-2-tasmania-super-440-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
