Payne scores Carrera Cup pole at The Bend

Matthew Payne will start the opening Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia race at The Bend Motorsport Park from pole position after a stunning qualifying effort in the wet.

The talented Kiwi mastered the tricky conditions to post a 2:01.5602 – putting him more than half a second clear at the front.

His nearest rival was Cooper Murray, while points leader Cameron Hill and David Russell will share the second row of the grid.

Further back, Luke Youlden and practice pace-setter Dale Wood will start from the fifth row, while Craig Lowndes qualified down in 18th.

Payne admitted the session went better than even he could have anticipated.

“The ‘New Zealand ‘conditions in qualifying I wouldn’t say favoured me but we were definitely better than we expected,” said the Earl Bamber Motorsport driver.

“I went straight out for the first couple of laps and the car felt really good and I kept improving as the track was getting drier, but it definitely got a bit more greasy toward the end.”

Geoff Emery meanwhile was quickest in the Pro-Am class, in 16th outright.

“The track was a bit tricky heading out on the green wets but I had never done a lap around here in the rain, so it was a matter of building on it every lap and I knew Sam (Shahin) would be pretty quick around here and he was,” said Emery.

“I just needed to keeping pushing on and that paid off in the end.”

Race 1 for Carrera Cup this weekend, comprising 11 laps, will start at 14:50 local time (15:20 AEST).

Qualifying: Carrera Cup Australia, The Bend