Perkins scores Winton Dunlop Series pole

Jack Perkins continued his strong run in the Dunlop Series by taking the #54 Eggleston Motorsport Holden to pole position at Winton.

The Holden driver was the man to beat throughout the second of the two 20 minute periods, for which the field had been split based on practice speeds.

Improving his early benchmark further on his second set of tyres, Perkins’ eventual best of 1:23.77s proved 0.21s quicker than series leader Dale Wood.

Steve Owen will start third in the second of the MW Motorsport Fords having been able to better his previous time but not improve his position with one final flyer.

Fastest man in the first 20 minutes, Taz Douglas, proved good enough for fourth in the final reckoning ahead of Andrew Jones, Cameron Waters, Morgan Haber, Nick McBride, Chris Pither and Ashley Walsh.

Haber’s impressive run ended on the grass in the infield after a high-speed off at Turn 5; ensuring team-mate Owen completed his last effort with a yellow flag flying.

Andre Heimgartner had been the second fastest man in the opening 20 minutes but fell to 14th after the second period.

Two red flags had punctuated the first 20 minutes, caused by offs at Turns 7 and 3 from Josh Kean and Michael Hector respectively.

A mistake from Ant Pedersen at Turn 4 provided the only stoppage in the second period.

Casey Stoner was fifth after the first segment but eventually fell to 20th.

See below for the full qualifying result