Feeney puts Triple Eight on provisional pole for Bathurst 12 Hour

The Queenslander was quickest in the latter part of Qualifying at Mount Panorama with a 2:01.8911s in the #888 Mercedes-AMG.

Both Triple Eight cars will be in the second half of the Top 10 Shootout with Jordan Love fifth on a 2:02.3198s in the #88 Mercedes-AMG.

Joining those entries after being classified second through fourth respectively will be the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG, the #32 Team WRT BMW, and the #130 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG.

It was up to 2019 race winner Matt Campbell to rescue a shootout berth and thus a shot at pole for the Pro class Manthey EMA Porsche, eventually taking sixth in Car #912.

The multi-part grid determination for the Bathurst 12 Hour saw the slower half of the field in Practice 6 go into Part 1 of Qualifying, with Part 2 reserved for the quicker half.

However, all times are thrown into the mix to set the top 10 for this afternoon’s ‘shootout’, and rain was threatening to fall over Mount Panorama, meaning there was a sense of urgency at the start of Part 2 of Qualifying.

Cam Waters was quickest out of the box with a 2:06.9494s in the #222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG which left him eighth, given the times already on the board from Part 1.

Once they had been around for two flying laps, Sheldon van der Linde was quickest on a 2:03.2897s in the #32 WRT BMW, with team-mate Maxime Martin third on a 2:03.5779s in the #46 BMW, split by Glen Wood’s 2:03.4246s (#48 M-Motorsport Mercedes-AMG) from the earlier segment.

Luca Stolz has been handed qualifying duties in the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG and he shifted the benchmark to a 2:02.6068s on his third flyer, but was still bettered by Sheldon van der Linde’s 2:02.2142s.

Stolz improved next time with a 2:02.4265s and was back on provisional pole position when he laid down a 2:02.2099s on his fifth lap.

Meanwhile, Kelvin van der Linde had moved into third spot with a 2:02.4575s in the #22 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi and Feeney crept up to fourth with a 2:02.5161s in the #888 Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG.

At the halfway mark, Wood was still holding seventh, while Lee Holdsworth sat on the top 10 bubble with a 2:03.6527s in the #9 MPC Audi.

The #912 Manthey EMA Porsche was only 12th with Ayanchan Guven’s 2:04.0317s, so Campbell was installed for the second run in a bid to salvage a shootout berth.

On the other hand, SunEnergy1 had put its cue in the rack, as had WRT for its BMWs which sat second and fifth at the time.

That became second and sixth when Ricardo Feller put the #2 MPC Audi into third on a 2:02.3615s, while Wood was finally bumped when Love (#88 Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG), Waters, Alessio Picariello (#911 Manthey EMA Porsche), and Maximilian Goetz (#77 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG) all found more time.

Feeney took two leaps to seize provisional pole with the weekend’s first ‘one’, a 2:01.8911s in the #888 Mercedes-AMG with five minutes to go.

Campbell was struggling to lift the #912 Porsche into the top 10, going 12th on a 2:03.3686s in the 26th minute, but then scraping into ninth on a 2:02.6711s, bumping Goetz while the #77 Mercedes-AMG was in the pits and stranded.

The Queenslander continued to rag the ‘grello’ 911 and crept up to eighth on a 2:02.5686s in the final minute, as Waters and Holdsworth searched for a way back into the top 10.

With the chequered flag out, Holdsworth took over 12th from Waters, who then improved his time but not his position.

Campbell was still in with a chance of making the second half of the shootout but subsequently improved to sixth on a 2:02.3785s, ahead of Feller in the #2 Audi, the #22 Audi, the #46 BMW, and the #911 Porsche.

The two-part Top 10 Shootout starts at 16:05 local time/AEDT/UTC +11.

Results: Qualifying – Part 2 Upper 50%