Will Brown has qualified on pole position for Race 10 at the Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, with Jack Le Brocq to join him on the front row this afternoon.
Erebus Motorsport’s Brown clocked a late 0:50.8786s in the third and final segment of knockout qualifying thanks in part to a tow from James Golding, with Le Brocq setting a 0:51.0766s after the chequered flag in the #34 Truck Assist Camaro.
Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters was the only Ford driver in the top 10 in Qualifying for Race 10, claiming third on the starting grid, alongside Repco Supercars Championship leader Brodie Kostecki in the second of Erebus’ Coca-Cola Camaros, with Shane van Gisbergen ninth.
UPDATE: van Gisbergen raises questions over qualifying yellow flag
Four drivers went out initially in the final, 10-minute stanza, with Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) holding sway then on a 0:51.0807s, from Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro), van Gisbergen (#97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro), and Brown (#9 Camaro).
Golding was the first to roll out for his final run and gradually moved up to second on a 0:51.2589s in the #31 Nulon Camaro, but his impact on the session would be far greater given Brown used him to get out of the headwind up the back straight and seize pole position.
The chequered flag came out and Le Brocq jumped up from ninth, with Waters pitting having not bettered his first-run effort.
Kostecki ended up fourth on a 0:51.0849s, from Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro) on a 0:51.1069s and Feeney on a 0:21.1448s.
Rookie Cameron Hill made it both Matt Stone Racing cars in the top 10, taking seventh in the #35 Truck Assist Camaro, ahead of Golding, van Gisbergen on a 0:51.3293s, and Scott Pye (#20 East Coast Car Rentals Camaro).
Earlier, in Part 2, Waters was the fast man with a late 0:50.8694s, but he was the only Ford driver through to the top 10.
After the initial runs in the latter of the two 15-minute segments, Kostecki was top on a 0:51.1532s and van Gisbergen second on a 0:51.2022s, although most, if not all, had not run new tyres to that point.
On his final run, Kostecki improved his time to a 0:50.8834s thanks in part to a tow from Todd Hazelwood (#3 CoolDrive Mustang), before Waters usurped him with just over a minute to go.
Golding then moved up to eighth to bump Heimgartner out of the top 10, before Heimgartner himself took over eighth.
That effort pushed Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) down to 11th with the chequered flag out and the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver already back into the pits.
He will share Row 6 this afternoon with Tim Slade (#23 Nulon Camaro), with Nick Percat (#2 Mobil 1 NTI Mustang) 13th, from Mark Winterbottom (#18 DeWalt Camaro) and James Courtney (#5 Snowy Rivers Caravans Mustang).
Will Davison qualified 16th but will start 20th after copping a grid penalty for impeding Feeney, who took to the dirt at Turn 2 in order to avoid nailing the #17 Shell V-Power Mustang.
Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Mustang) will thus start 16th, ahead of Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Mustang), Hazelwood, and Jack Smith (#4 SCT Logistics Camaro).
In Part 1, Davison was fastest on a 0:51.0265s but it was a tale of woe for his Dick Johnson Racing team-mate Anton De Pasquale as well as Grove Racing’s David Reynolds.
Just under half of the field went out initially in the 15-minute stanza, with Heimgartner quickest of those initial 11 on a 0:51.3745s in the #8 R&J Batteries Camaro.
Once the other 14 had gone out, it was Le Brocq holding sway on a 0:51.0571s, with De Pasquale and Reynolds outside the top 20.
Worse still, De Pasquale was suffering from continuing technical problems after a clutch centre failure in the #11 Shell V-Power Mustang which sidelined him for around half of Practice 2, while Reynolds had a reported gear sensor failure in the #26 Penrite Mustang.
Davison jumped to the top in the final minute before the chequered flag but De Pasquale could only edge up to 22nd on a 0:51.5643s on his final lap without a functioning clutch, which consigned Reynolds to 23rd.
Ahead of them on the grid will be Bryce Fullwood (#14 Middy’s Camaro) in 21st, and behind will be Declan Fraser (#56 Tradie Mustang) in 24th and Macauley Jones (#96 Pizza Hut Camaro) in 25th.
Race 10, a 42-lapper, is officially set to start at 15:55 local time/AEST.
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