Jacobson sets record pace in Super2 qualifying

Garry Jacobson had to break the Dunlop Super2 Series practice record by half a second in order to take pole position for this afternoon’s first race of the season in Adelaide.

The top five went faster than the four-year-old practice record set by Ash Walsh, with Jacobson the first man into the 1:20s in the second tier of Supercars to take the Armor All Pole Position.

Paul Dumbrell also made the front row, while third-fastest Macauley Jones will have Alex Rullo alongside him.

Either of Jacobson or Dumbrell was fastest for the vast majority of the 20-minute session, the former breaking the practice record at the halfway mark.

He went faster again on the very next lap despite hitting a tyre bundle in his #26 MW Motorsport Nissan Altima, before Dumbrell came out for his second run and returned to the top.

The two-time series winner chose to step out of his #88 Eggleston Motorsport VF Commodore after that effort, which came with five minutes remaining.

Jacobson went for a third run and moved the mark to a 1:20.9223s in the final minute of the session.

“A lot of credit to (team owner) Matt White, he’s been pestering me all last year to come into his team,” said the 2016 series winner.

“I finally made that decision and I’m really happy about it. The car feels great and it’s good to be able to give something back to all those sponsors who stuck by me through the 2017 season that wasn’t so good.

“(I’m) back on pole position, so thanks to everybody for sticking with me and excited about the future of 2018.”

Macauley Jones (#14 Brad Jones Racing VF Commodore) and Alex Rullo (#62 Nissan Altima) qualified third and fourth despite each being held for the first five minutes due to passing the chequered flag twice in Practice 2 on the preceding afternoon.

Rullo also experienced a near-miss with MW Motorsport team-mate Dean Fiore (#23 Nissan Altima) when the latter had a moment at Turn 9.

Will Brown did not figure near the top of the timing monitor until his 19th minute flyer which put the #38 Eggleston Motorsport VF Commodore fifth on the starting grid.

Rounding out the top 10 were Brodie Kostecki, Kurt Kostecki, Shae Davies, Chris Pither, and rookie Thomas Randle.

Race 1, over 19 laps, starts this afternoon at 1625 local time/1655 AEDT.

Results: Armor All Qualifying Updated