Triple Eight’s Kurt Kostecki has taken a maiden Armor All Pole Position in Qualifying for Race 1 of Super2 at Townsville despite encountering traffic on his fastest lap.
Kostecki was nose-to-tail with last-start race winner Ash Walsh when he set a 1:14.2187s in the #55 VF Commodore, which was ultimately enough to deny series leader Bryce Fullwood pole by 0.0251s.
The man who would go fastest in the 15-minute session was second-last after the first runs before jumping to second with a 1:14.5525s at the start of his second run.
He found even more time on his next lap to dislodge Thomas Randle from first position, giving Triple Eight Race Engineering its first pole since returning to the Dunlop Super2 Series this year.
Fullwood had been on top when the session went quiet, and he improved by almost two tenths in his second run to put the #16 MW Motorsport Altima on the outside of the front row.
Randle was 0.0527s slower than pole in the #5 Tickford FGX Falcon and will be joined on Row two by the second of the MWM entries in Zane Goddard (#28 Altima).
Tim Blanchard, who was one of a handful of drivers to break into the 1:14s on his very first flyer, put the #77 Brad Jones Racing VF Commodore fifth on the grid, with fellow Super2 returnee Jack Perkins to start alongside in the #54 Eggleston Motorsport (EMS) VF Commodore.
All three EMS cars started on green tyres in a bid to take advantage of following Carrera Cup qualifying and Will Brown’s (#38 VF Commodore) best was the 1:14.5788s he set on his first run as he qualified seventh.
Rounding out the top 10 were rookie Dylan O’Keeffe (#44 Garry Rogers Motorsport VF Commodore), Jack Smith (#21 Brad Jones Racing VF Commodore), and Jake Kostecki (#56 Kostecki Brothers Racing VF Commodore).
Walsh ended up only 12th at 0.6512s off the pace in the #35 Matt Stone Racing VF Commodore, while the first 17 of 18 cars were within a second of each other.
Race 1 of Round 3, scheduled for 21 laps, is due to start this afternoon at 1345 local time/AEST.
Results: Armor All Qualifying
| Pos | Num | Team/Sponsor | Driver | Car | Fastest lap | Split |
| 1 | 55 | Arcoweld Racing | Kurt Kostecki | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.2187 | |
| 2 | 16 | Middy’s Electrical / MWM | Bryce Fullwood | Nissan Altima | 1:14.2438 | 0:00.0251 |
| 3 | 5 | Skye Sands | Thomas Randle | Ford Falcon FG/X | 1:14.2714 | 0:00.0527 |
| 4 | 28 | BGD Architects / MWM | Zane Goddard | Nissan Altima | 1:14.4888 | 0:00.2701 |
| 5 | 77 | Petronas Motorsport | Tim Blanchard | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.4911 | 0:00.2724 |
| 6 | 54 | Eggleston Motorsport | Jack Perkins | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.5525 | 0:00.3338 |
| 7 | 38 | Eggleston Motorsport | William Brown | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.5788 | 0:00.3601 |
| 8 | 44 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Dylan O’Keeffe | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.5844 | 0:00.3657 |
| 9 | 21 | SCT Logistics | Jack Smith | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.6394 | 0:00.4207 |
| 10 | 56 | Team Arcoweld Racing | Jake Kostecki | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.6989 | 0:00.4802 |
| 11 | 10 | Grove Hire Racing | Brenton Grove | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.7197 | 0:00.5010 |
| 12 | 35 | Matt Stone Racing | Ashley Walsh | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.8699 | 0:00.6512 |
| 13 | 15 | Image Racing | Adam Marjoram | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.8831 | 0:00.6644 |
| 14 | 49 | Image Racing | Jordan Boys | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.9471 | 0:00.7284 |
| 15 | 99 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Mason Barbera | Holden Commodore VF | 1:14.9961 | 0:00.7774 |
| 16 | 88 | Eggleston Motorsport | Justin Ruggier | Holden Commodore VF | 1:15.0205 | 0:00.8018 |
| 17 | 27 | Lowes Petoleum / MWM | Tyler Everingham | Nissan Altima | 1:15.1598 | 0:00.9411 |
| 18 | 18 | Cavalier Homes Australia | Matthew Chahda | Ford Falcon FG/X | 1:15.2623 | 0:01.0436 |
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