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Bathurst pain in the past for V8 star

Holden star Shane van Gisbergen provided the perfect response to his Bathurst heartbreak with a red-hot show on Friday on the streets of Surfers Paradise.

The New Zealander posted the fastest time in practice ahead of this weekend's Gold Coast 600 V8 Supercars event.

Van Gisbergen logged the day's best lap of one minute and 10.4729 seconds on the 2.97km street circuit, finishing ahead of Holden's James Courtney (1:10.8135) and Ford's David Reynolds (1.10.8702).

Van Gisbergen's quick time suggests the disappointment of Bathurst, where he suffered a starter motor failure when leading the 1000km endurance classic with just nine laps remaining, has already been banished from his memory.

"Monday (after the race) was pretty tough," he said.

"Last week, I was playing round ... got it out of my system there, took it out on a pretty angry car. That was cool.

"I'm over it now, yeah."

Reynolds, who claimed his maiden V8 Supercars race win on the Gold Coast last year, is also bouncing back from a Bathurst hard-luck story.

The Team Bottle-O Racing driver says he's excited to be back on the streets of Surfers.

"I've got to find a few tenths of a second to get near Shane but I really like this track," Reynolds said.

Holden Racing Team star Courtney, who finished second in the recent Sandown 500 with co-driver Greg Murphy, said he was hoping to continue his team's strong form in 2014 in street circuit racing.

"I love the street circuits. Murph has a great time; we've got a good street circuit history," he said.

"It should be pretty fun."

Championship leader Jamie Whincup was fourth fastest, aiming to build on his 297-point advantage over Mark Winterbottom in the third-last event of the season.

Winterbottom could only clock the day's ninth-fastest time, suggesting he had plenty of ground to make up to halt Whincup's charge to a sixth championship.

Bathurst 1000 winner Chaz Mostert was right behind Whincup in fifth.

Holden veteran Craig Lowndes, who remains a mathematical chance of the championship in third on the standings, was 13th fastest.

Saturday's action begins at 11.35am (AEST) with qualifying before a 300km race starts at 2.40pm.