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Sprint Gas Racing's Jason Bargwanna and Mark Noske are happy with their car while Greg Murphy and Mark Skaife are looking for further improvement as they head towards Sunday's L&H 500 at Phillip Island.

 While it was Murphy and Skaife that just pipped Bargwanna and Noske on fastest times, they are separated by only two-100ths of a second and it was the latter pairing that felt they had a better hold of the car.

 "Today's been pretty good," Bargwanna said.

"22^nd doesn't suggest that we should be happy, but as far as balance goes the car feels nice.

 "The aero and suspension adjustments really helped shape the car. We didn't use any green tyres so we'll be expecting to go faster tomorrow.

 "With some more grip we'll be even happier."

 Noske was also upbeat despite the gusty conditions.

 "Today's blustery wind makes life difficult because you balance the car to the conditions, which we felt we did, but tomorrow could be the opposite of today and you start from scratch again," Noske said.

 "The wind at Phillip Island can play havoc with set-up. It'll be windy tomorrow, hopefully it'll be blowing in the same direction and we'll do alright.

 "I'm more than happy with how the car feels, it's almost where the car was last year which was a car that was easy to drive and good in the latter stages of the race."

 Murphy and Skaife admitted that there was a lot of work to do to get the car to where they want it to be.

 "The car feels okay between turns three and nine, but we are having some issues through one and two," Murphy said.

 "The equipment changes that we've made to the car since the test had a positive impact and we were able to find a baseline today - which in itself is a good start.

 "All of that said, we've got a lot of work to do tonight in preparation for tomorrow.

 Skaife was happy to be back in the driver's seat and heading in the right direction."

 "I've been away from the race track for nine months, but it seems like only yesterday," Skaife said.

 "I'm comfortable in the car and it was going okay in some sections of the circuit and not in others.

 "But we've got a hang of things and we should improve tomorrow."

 Murphy and Skaife were 20^th in today's practice session, while Bargwanna and Noske were 22^nd.