De Pasquale soars to Race 10 pole

Anton De Pasquale has put the Shell V-Power Racing Team in the box seat to stretch its Wanneroo Raceway winning streak to seven races after grabbing pole position for tonight’s encounter under lights.

De Pasquale delivered the quickest lap of the weekend when it mattered to knock off Shane van Gisbergen and secure top spot.

Dick Johnson Racing has not been beaten in Western Australia since the 2017 event, but entered the Bunnings Trade Perth SuperNight winless in 2022.

“I was pushing quite hard there, obviously it’s so tight around here so you’re on the fine line of making mistakes and putting it a good lap together,” said De Pasquale.

“The guys here gave me an awesome car so we’ll try convert tonight.

“I’m as hungry as everyone else up and down pit lane. We’ve been close but haven’t quite got the big one yet.”

Cameron Waters made it an all-Ford front-row, leapfrogging van Gisbergen who was somewhat lucky to wind up third.

The championship leader went mightily close to being knocked out in the second phase of the three-part qualifying, but will start directly behind the pole-sitting #11 Mustang.

Brodie Kostecki was a fine fourth for Erebus Motorsport, ahead of David Reynolds, James Courtney, and Andre Heimgartner.

Broc Feeney improved on his second effort to take eighth, ahead of fellow rookie Thomas Randle and Will Brown, who was the sole driver to set his flying lap at the start of Q3.

Further back, there was a shock as Walkinshaw Andretti United team-mates Chaz Mostert and Nick Percat were bundled out in the first segment of qualifying, leaving them to line up 23rd and 25th tonight, respectively.

In the final flurry of runs, it quickly became clear that Mostert would not get out of the drop zone, but Percat had threatened to do so as he set personal-best sectors in one last-gasp effort – but it was not enough to get himself out of last place.

Joining those two in missing the cut for Q2 was Jack Smith, Bryce Fullwood and Lee Holdsworth.

The dying stages of Q2 provided no shortage of drama, with all eyes on whether a tyre-saving gamble for van Gisbergen would backfire.

Having held top spot before pitting, van Gisbergen tumbled to 10th on the timesheets and looked certain to be bumped out, only for a series of drivers failing to improve.

The highest-profile of those was Will Davison, who was among the last across the line but could do no better than 12th.

Davison had been the only driver to have qualified inside the top 10 (top six, in fact) at every attempt this season, but that streak has now come to an end.

In the end, van Gisbergen snuck through with a mere 0.0143s in hand over 11th placed Todd Hazelwood.

Tim Slade and Jack Le Brocq will start from the seventh row of the grid, with Scott Pye, Mark Winterbottom, Garry Jacobson, Jake Kostecki, Macauley Jones, and Chris Pither taking 15th through 20th.

A 46-lap affair, Race 10 of the Repco Supercars Championship will kick off at 18:40 AWST/20:40 AEST.

Results: Qualifying for Race 10