The third and final free practice session of the opening day of play at the Pukekohe Raceway in New Zealand saw Jamie Whincup at the top of the leaderboard.
With just five minutes left on the clock in the thirty minute session, Team Vortex driver Craig Lowndes sat firmly at the top of the timesheets, however, those last five minutes saw a flurry of activity as one after another, drivers bettered their times. By the time the clock stopped, Lowndes had dropped all the way down to eleventh place as his former teammate rose to the top, his best time of 1:02.11 bettering his teammate's record time from pracrice two.
Fabian Coulthard finished the day in P2 ahead of Mark Winterbottom. Winterbottom's Prodrive teammate, Chaz Mostert, ended his day in the wall after his SuperCheap Ford became unsettled on the exit kerb of turn three and sent him spinning straight into the tyre barrier.
Prior to that there was a red flag after Todd Kelly put in an aggressive ride over the kerbs at turn three and deposited part of his car on the track as he continued on.
Shane van Gisbergen finished the down in P4, ahead of James Courtney, Will Davison, David Reynolds, Garth Tander, Jason Bright and Scotty Pye.
