In fact, the Tickford Racing driver mimicked the pace so well in Thursday's opening practice session that he produced an identical lap time to the one that took him to the top of the time sheets in 2020.

Waters' lap time of two minutes and 5.0233 is a perfect copy of his practice one time last year - down to the thousandth of a second - and his latest effort put him clear of Chaz Mostert (2:05.1075) and Will Davison (2:05.1390).

Waters left it late to jump to the top of the standings, producing his fastest lap inside the last two minutes of Thursday's session.

James Courtney (2:05.3685) and Mark Winterbottom (2:05.3981) rounded out the top five.

Waters said his Mustang wasn't feeling at it's flashiest in the early stages of the session but after some minor changes he felt much more comfortable behind the wheel.

"It was pretty cool to do the same time as last year," he said.

"We rolled the car out and it actually wasn't that great. I had a really good plan, we got through our program, and by the end it was feeling really good. It was doing everything that it needs to early in the weekend."

Waters had a mixed experience back in February's first visit of the series to Mount Panorama, running 20^th in the season opener before improving vastly to end up second in the following race.

He'd love to go one step better at the Mount, having also finished second in last season's Bathurst 1000.

"We were here in February and I couldn't go any better then, so all year we've been pretty keen to come back here. Finishing the year here is pretty special," Waters said.

"We want to go one better, for sure. We're focused on what we need to do to make sure we've got a car that's quick enough to win this race."

The early stages of the session were interrupted by a power steering issue for Macauley Jones, which forced the Brad Jones Racing driver to park his #96 Commodore at the exit of The Cutting.

Series champion Shane van Gisbergen and Scott Pye had exits off the track at The Chase but both came through with their cars unscathed.

Thursday also saw co-drivers taking their first opportunity to get practice laps in around Mount Panorama during the afternoon's second session.

Lee Holdsworth (2:05.2258) and James Moffat (2:05.6034) were the only two drivers to break into the 2:05s, with Alex Davison (2:06.0552), Garth Tander (2:06.0947) and Dean Fiore (2:06.1643) rounding out the top five.

Trouble struck again for the #96 entry in the second session when Jones' co-driver Chris Pither struck the outside wall of Forrest's Elbow heavily inside the final two minutes.

Holdsworth said that this year's Bathurst 1000, driving alongside Mostert, is a golden opportunity for him to claim his first win in the event.

"It's great to be with Chaz this year and the Walkinshaw Andretti United crew have got a quick car. It was quick from the start of the year and they've been able to carry that through to this weekend," he said.

"It's exciting. This is probably going to be my best chance yet to get up the top and get some glory around here. I've been taking in the week - it's been a long one, we've been here since Saturday - so you don't want to exert yourself.

"It's a completely different mindset for me, being a co-driver. I'm just trying to relax. It felt like an eternity waiting to get myself in that driver's seat.

"I'm here to do a job for Chaz and the team. It's not about trying to set it up for me, it's about trying to drive a similar style to what Chaz does. Fortunately, that's similar to my natural style."

That brought out the red flag and saw the session finish early.

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