CALLUM HEDGE has picked up where he left off to top practice for Round 3 of the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship on the streets of Townsville.

The young New Zealander topped the second - and quickest - of two, 25-minute practice sessions today in his Team Porsche NZ / Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche 992 GT3 Cup Car today at the scene of his maiden Carrera Cup win twelve months ago.

RESULTS: Carreracup.com.au/results

Hedge won the third race and the round overall in Townsville last year, the first of his Carrera Cup Career.

Twelve months on, his 1:13.6669s topped the times on Friday by a tiny 0.05 seconds, with David Wall a narrow second aboard his Monochrome / Wall Racing entry.

Hedge was naturally also quickest in the Michelin Juniors and the Equity One Pro class runners.

Darwin winner Dale Wood was was third quickest today, having earlier topped practice one.

Wood this morning unveiled a brand-new livery and sponsor, Ranbuild, for his EBM-run entry today.

David Russell and Fabian Coulthard completed the top five on overall times, with Thomas Maxwell, Dylan O'Keeffe, Angelo Mouzouris, Alex Davison and Max Vidau completing the top-10.

Championship leader Jackson Walls was 13th, though only 0.6s away from the quickest time.

The end of the second practice session turned into something of a mini-shootout with most contenders running new Michelin tyres late in the day, ahead of the all-important qualifying session on Saturday morning.

The tight fight in SP Tools Pro-Am continued in practice today, Adrian Flack topping Dean Cook by 0.08 seconds today.

The Pro-Am pair were exactly one second away from the quickest outright time showing their high level of competition this year.

Matt Belford was an impressive third with Sam Shahin fourth and Rodney Jane fifth, Marc Cini, Tim Miles and Daniel Stutterd completing the order.

Earlier, Cook had topped Practice 1 by the same 0.08 seconds he trailed in FP2, Shahin and Belford in close company in the opening hit out.

The Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship returns for qualifying tomorrow morning, ahead of the opening of three races tomorrow afternoon.

Qualifying will be shown live on Fox Sports 506 and Kayo Sports, with Channel 7 also showing Race 1 on free-to-air.

CALLUM HEDGE

"It was a pretty good start. i didn't drive very good this morning, I kept trying to drive it like a single seater and it tu4rns out this thing isn't a single seater car.

So I tuned that up for practice two. I didn't start off well on the used tyres but re-set and went on some greens and felt really comfortable. I got a nice bunker lap and that helped.

"Last year this was a track I was looking forward to, purely because it looked like a good track on the TV, but to get that breakthrough result set up a strong of success for me in the back half of last year.

"The goal is to do the same and get on the round podium, and the championship lead."

ADRIAN FLACK

"It's always a good way to start. this track is always quite frightening to start with and as the rubber comes down you feel a little more comfortable out there, so a good way to start,

"I was thinking to myself, can these guys slow down- it was getting on the edge there at the end. It's a good start, I love the track and looking forward to the rest of the weekend here."