Supercheap Auto Racing’s Bayley Hall has qualified 22nd for Sunday’s AirTouch 500 following another promising day aboard the No. 15 Chevrolet Camaro at The Bend.

Saturday began with a 40-minute co-driver practice session, where Hall continued his strong form from Friday by placing sixth fastest.

After topping the dedicated co-driver session on Friday, Hall completed another 21 laps and recorded a best time of 1:17.6148 to finish only 0.2004 seconds behind session leader Lochie Dalton.

Craig Lowndes returned to the car for Practice 5, with the pair sharing the running as they continued preparing for Sunday’s 500-kilometre race.

Hall was then entrusted with qualifying duties, producing a 1:16.8168 to qualify 22nd, in a tight session which saw the top 25 cars separated by seven-tenths of a second.

Hall believes the gains made throughout Saturday have provided the pair with a more consistent race package.

Sunday’s action begins with a 20-minute warm-up at 10:15am, followed by the 147-lap AirTouch 500 at 1:45pm ACST. All the action can be viewed live on Fox and Kayo.

RESULTS & QUOTES

Craig Lowndes, Primary Driver – No. 15 Supercheap Auto Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Practice 4: P6 – Bayley Hall (1:17.6148)

Practice 5: P22 (1:17.3418)

Qualifying: P22 – Bayley Hall (1:16.8168)

“Day two here at The Bend was another positive one. We learned a little bit overnight and tried to improve the race car, which was a little difficult.

“Bayley completed the first practice session as the co-driver, then we split the running in Practice 5. The car felt quite nice, but we’ll find out tomorrow whether the direction we’ve taken has worked.

“We start 22nd, which probably sounds a little worse than it was. It was a very tight qualifying session, with the top 25 cars covered by around seven-tenths of a second.

“I think it’s going to be a close and intense race. We’ve done a good job up to this point, the car has definitely improved, and we’ll keep working on it during the warm-up tomorrow morning.”

Bayley Hall, Co-Driver – No. 15 Supercheap Auto Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

“Co-driver practice wasn’t too bad. We had our fun yesterday, so today we focused on improving the race car and managing things like rear tyre overheating.

“We probably detuned the car a little too much for qualifying and it wasn’t quite in the window we needed in such a tight field. To have only half a second between us and the fastest car is crazy around a circuit like this, particularly on an endurance weekend.

“I gave everyone a pat on the back because this is only our second event and we were just over half a second away from the front. Qualifying 22nd isn’t where we want to be, but it’s still a good effort.

“I think we have a decent race package and I’ve got Craig Lowndes sharing the car with me. He’ll work hard and get the job done, and we have 500 kilometres to make our way forward.”