Today saw Team BOC's hard slog pay dividends as Jason Richards finished fastest in Practice at Townsville.

Richards was also competitive at the North Queensland street track last year but has since introduced a brand new set-up philosophy. That means the result is not specific to the venue, according to team boss Brad Jones, who is optimistic this is a sign of things to come.

Qualifying for tomorrow's race begins at 10.50am

Jason Richards
Team BOC
"That feels awesome! There are some great teams in this championship so to knock them off is no mean feat.

"We've got a totally different philosophy to last year and obviously Jason Bright and Phil Keed have come on board and made a positive impact. There's no doubt that we were capable of one fast lap back then but this shifting philosophy has helped the race pace as well. It's all paying dividends now.

"It was pretty slippery out there today and I kept losing the rear into the corners on old tyres; sometimes I could catch it and other times it got the better of me. Once I put the green tyres on, though, the car really lifted its game to the point where I didn't get the most out of the car on my fast lap because I didn't expect it to be that good!"

Brad Jones
Team Co-Owner
"It's great to see that we've carried the form we had at Hidden Valley to Townsville. The car seems to be hooked up really well and it looks like most people ran on green or near green tyres so this is a real result. There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to repeat this sort of form tomorrow.

"We were very fast at this circuit last year as well, but we've come here with a different set-up to what we ran last year and we're still very fast so I think it's a progression. It's hard to know but I have to say we're doing well."

Jason Richards V8 STATS
Current championship position: 12
Current championship points: 912
V8 Supercar Championship race starts: 277
Previous best Townsville qualifying: 6 (2009)
Previous best Townsville result: 12 (2009)

Sucrogen Townsville 400-V8 Supercar Championship
TOWNSVILLE STREET CIRCUIT
Races 15 & 16 - Practice (Combined)
01 Jason Richards, Team BOC, 1:12.9513*
02 Jamie Whincup, 888, +0.0157
03 Garth Tander, HRT, +0.1089
04 Craig Lowndes, 888, +0.3303
05 Tony D'Alberto, TDR, +0.4933
06 Jason Bright, Trading Post Racing, +0.5125
07 Steve Richards, FPR, +0.5141
08 James Courtney, DJR, +0.5591
09 Fabian Coulthard, Walkinshaw Performance, +0.5791
10 Will Davison, HRT, +0.6462