KEEGAN Brain's first seconds in the TCR series might be ones he'd rather forget, but the Lidsdale native was not the only driver who fell victim to an oily Mount Panorama track on Tuesday morning.
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In his TCR debut Brain struck trouble in the opening practice session at turn one after hitting oil, and not long after Chaz Mostert - then man who leads the touring car series - slid off as well.
Brain was forced to return to the pits without completing a lap, he and his Purple Sector crew getting straight to work on the repairs needed to get the Volkswagen Golf back on track.
"It was just before turn one ... yeah I'm a bit devastated, but we'll get the repairs done and get it back out," Brain said.
"I just couldn't do anything, it just went on me. It's mainly cosmetic damage, bent front right-hand wishbone and bent rear trailing arm, so it should be okay, I'm going to jump in and help too."
Just like Brain, Supercars regular Mostert could do little to avoid crashing after he lost the rear of his Audi at Reid Park.
"I thought the oil finished before then because of where the sawdust was, but I don't know if the officials had run out of sawdust to continue or whatever," he said.
"It pulled the corner of it and I was pretty much a passenger from there."
Bathurst driver Brad Shiels, who heads into the season finale of the TCR series as the leading privateer, was very nearly another casualty of the conditions.
However, he managed to keep his car on track and clocked the fourth fastest lap of the session in his Tilton Racing Hyundai i30N.
Shiels was also poised to go even quicker than his 2:19.6124, the red flag being waved on what would have been his best effort.
"On my out lap I was just cruising along, not even half pace, and I hit the oil and I nearly hit the wall, so it was crazy," he said.
"It was up at Sulman Park, the oil was pretty much the whole way across the top.
"But yeah, we were really happy with how it ended up and we were a lot faster on the last lap that got red flagged. We had three three flags that session, I was on a flyer when it got flagged again. So there's a bit left in it, it's really promising."
Race one starts 4.30pm Wednesday.
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