Believing he has nothing to lose, Tickford ace Cam Waters plans on "annoying" his championship-chasing Supercars rivals at the Gold Coast 500.
Waters and teammate Thomas Randle sent an early warning to championship leader Will Brown by dominating practice on Friday at the Surfers Paradise street circuit.
A red-hot Randle clocked a lap time of one minute, 10.377 seconds in his Mustang to break the record for the Gen3 era cars (1:10.464) set by his teammate last year.
Waters was second-fastest ahead of Grove Racing driver Matt Payne in third, while Red Bull's Brown finished sixth.
Fellow championship contenders Broc Feeney (second) and Chaz Mostert (third) were fourth and 10th respectively.
While eight-placed Randle is mathematically out of contention for the championship after 20 races this year, Waters remains a slim chance in fourth.
He is 464 points behind Brown and must close the gap by at least 165, with a total of 300 available this round.
The Mildura product's title aspirations will end on Saturday if he falls behind by 151 points after the first race.
Well aware of the task ahead, Waters has simplified his challenge in his mind.
"I just want to be here winning races ... and just to be a nuisance to Will Brown," Waters said.
"I've got nothing to lose, so it's full attack mode and be annoying."
Randle is setting his sights on a maiden career win after fumbling pole position to finish 18th in Tasmania earlier this year.
"I'm pretty damn hungry," he said.
"I mean, it's still only Friday, so it doesn't count at the end of the day, but it's nice to have fast cars going into qualifying."
Meanwhile, Brown could clinch the title if he leaves the Gold Coast with a lead of 301 points or more.
Waters holds the advantage over Brown at the punishing street circuit, registering his 10th career win with a thrilling victory at Surfers Paradise last year.
His Red Bull rival has not finished in the top 10 as a solo driver on the Gold Coast.
Avoiding a kerb strike will be crucial for drivers across the two 250km races as they navigate the punishing chicanes.
There were 136 kerb hops at turn nine in practice one before the detector was turned off for the later session.
Should a driver suffer a kerb hop or cut through the chicane during qualifying on Saturday, their lap time will be deleted.
Newly minted Bathurst 1000 winner Brodie Kostecki was relegated to the back of the pack at the Gold Coast last year after being hit with a kerb strike in the beach chicane.
Kostecki was fifth fastest on Friday while Brad Jones Racing rookie Jaxon Evans was dead last after battling a gearbox issue.
Evans completed only eight laps before he was forced to return to the pit.
The grid returns for qualifying on Saturday at 12pm (AEDT) before the top-10 shootout at 1.35pm.
Race 21 then gets underway at 4.15pm.
