Jason Bright has taken pole position in his Fujitsu Ford Falcon FG – his first pole position in the category since 2006 at Oran Park with Ford Performance Racing.
Bright scorched to the top spot (1m33.6487s), ahead of championship challengers Will Davison and Jamie Whincup.
Bright way glad to be back at the front and take his 10th career pole.
“It’s been a while,” a relieved Bright said.
“The car was good here in the 500 and I was looking forward to coming back here after that weekend. I don’t think we showed what we were capable of here last time. This is more proof that we’ve made some more grounds once we got the FG.”
Todd and Rick Kelly will start fourth and fifth in their ever-improving Jack Daniel’s Commodore VEs, ahead of Lee Holdsworth, Craig Lowndes, Shane van Gisbergen and Fabian Coulthard.
Orrcon FPR driver Mark Winterbottom had a disappointing shoot-out lap and will start 10th.
Just missing out on the top 10 was Garth Tander, the only driver in with a realistic chance of the V8 title after Whincup and Davison.
Steven Johnson and James Courtney will start 12th and 13th, ahead of Jason Richards, Alex Davison, David Reynolds and Russell Ingall.
Michael Caruso was 18th and had some choice words to say about Jason Bright over his radio. Caruso was complaining that Bright had held him up on one of his fast laps.
One of the surprise strugglers was Steve Richards, who will start Race 21 from 26th after battling understeer during the session.
THE ISLAND 300 – TOP 10 results – Race 21
1. #25 Jason Bright 1:33.6487
2. #22 Will Davison 1:34.0346
3. #1 Jamie Whincup 1:34.1541
4. #7 Todd Kelly 1:34.2253
5. #15 Rick Kelly 1:34.4099
6. #33 Lee Holdsworth 1:34.4810
7. #888 Craig Lowndes 1:34.4821
8. #9 Shane Van Gisbergen 1:34.5078
9. #111 Fabian Coulthard 1:34.7177
10. #5 Mark Winterbottom 1:35.1458
