Golding takes provisional pole, Mostert 22nd

2023 champion Brodie Kostecki also missed the Top 10 Shootout and is set to start 11th, while PremiAir Racing’s Golding will be last out for tomorrow morning’s one-lap dash after topping Qualifying for Race 11 by a margin of 0.0742s over Matt Stone Racing’s Nick Percat.

Both Red Bull Ampol Racing drivers made it in, with Broc Feeney fourth and championship leader/Practice 1 fast man Will Brown fifth, but Penrite Racing’s Matt Payne missed out.

Drivers had 15 minutes to earn a spot in tomorrow morning’s shootout at Hidden Valley Raceway and 18 rolled out initially, the fastest of them being Golding (#31 Nulon Camaro) on a 1:05.8655s.

Percat (#10 Bendix Camaro) sat second on a 1:05.9612s before Feeney (#88 Camaro) on a 1:05.9800s, Cam Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) on a 1:05.742s, and then Tim Slade (#23 Nulon Camaro) on a 1:05.9612s moved to third.

Ahead of the final runs, the top five was still Golding, Percat, Slade, Waters, and Feeney, with notables outside the top 10 including Payne (#19 Mustang) in 12th, Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang) in 13th, Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang) in 15th, and Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) in 22nd.

With two minutes to go, Brown went second on a 1:05.9017s before he was edged by Feeney on a 1:05.8965s, then Mark Winterbottom (#18 DeWalt Camaro) leaped to the top on a 1:05.8427s.

Percat beat that with a 1:05.7654s but was knocked off again by Golding on a 1:05.6912s, then David Reynolds (#20 Tradie Beer Camaro) moved to sixth and thus bumped Jack Le Brocq (#9 Tyrepower Camaro) out of the top 10.

Le Brocq’s Erebus Motorsport team-mate, Kostecki (#1 Camaro), looked to have just snuck into the shootout until De Pasquale came through to set a 1:05.9434s well after the chequered flag, jumping from 15th to sixth.

The top 10 was thus Golding, Percat, Winterbottom, Feeney, Brown, De Pasquale, Reynolds, Slade, Waters, and Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro).

Kostecki and Le Brocq will share Row 6, after a session during which they were apparently brought undone at one point by the live pit lane.

Both had missed the Erebus box at the end of their first runs and were forced to drive around again before parking in pit lane.

Row 7 will be a Grove Racing lockout with Payne 13th-fastest and Richie Stanaway (#26 Mustang) 14th-, while Davison ended up 17th on the starting grid.

Mostert was among the last to finish the session but could not improve on a 1:06.4783s on his final lap and was consigned to 22nd, two positions ahead of Walkinshaw Andretti United team-mate Ryan Wood (#2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Mustang).

READ MORE: Mostert predicts “pretty late debrief” after qualifying miss

The WAU duo is split by the Supercheap Auto-backed #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Camaro of wildcard Cooper Murray.

Golding is now the only driver in contention for the Darwin Triple Crown title, under the new-for-2024 format which counts Friday afternoon qualifying as the first leg.

The next session is Practice 2, tomorrow at 09:35 local time/10:05 AEST.

Results: Qualifying for Race 11, Betr Darwin Triple Crown