Crashes galore in crazy Bathurst 1000 practice

Mount Panorama has not waited long before claiming her first victims in an eventful Bathurst 1000 practice day on Thursday.

The opening session alone featured two red flags and a nasty crash by Holden's Tim Slade.

Slade led the field early but lasted just 30 minutes in the session before hitting the wall at the Esses, coming down the mountain at 176kph.

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The session only just got underway again before youngster Alex Rullo found trouble at Forrest's Elbow and left his Holden idle track-side on top of Conrod Straight, sporting plenty of right hand front damage.

Slade's Brad Jones Racing (BJR) team are working overtime to have their extensively damaged Holden repaired in time for Friday's qualifying.

"That's how unforgiving this place is - that was just a small mistake," Fox Sports' Supercars great Mark Skaife said.

A shaken Slade put his hand up after the incident.

"Obviously I was too fast," he said.

"We made a change to the front tyres and the car was awesome but I clipped the wall pretty hard.

"I am not sure of the extent of the damage."

Teenager Rullo's Holden also did not take part in the second session after suffering suspension damage.

Holden cult hero David Reynolds later sounded his intentions by threatening the record books in the third session on Thursday afternoon.

But defending series champion Shane van Gisbergen faces an anxious wait after a nasty crash in the final one-hour session of the day.

Reynolds threw down the gauntlet for the weekend by clocking Thursday's fastest overall practice time in the last session - two minutes, 05.09 seconds.

It was just 0.19 of a second outside Holden star Jamie Whincup's 2015 practice lap record (2:04.90) at Mount Panorama.

He was fastest ahead of Supercars series leader Scott McLaughlin and Ford teammate Fabian Coulthard.

with AAP