Perkins takes Townsville pole in Super2 return, Allen 13th

The relative veteran of the field is back in Super2 this weekend in a Gen2-spec Blanchard Racing Team Ford ahead of his enduro campaign with James Courtney at the Box Hill-based team.

He wheeled the #79 S550 Mustang to a 1:14.0495s to score his first pole in the second tier of Supercars since 2013, finishing the 20-minute session 0.0932s ahead of Eggleston Motorsport’s Cooper Murray.

Tickford Racing’s Brad Vaughan will be joined on Row 2 by RM Racing Cars’ Cameron McLeod, while series leader Kai Allen is buried in 13th, the exact median of the 25-car field.

With the qualifying format revised since Round 2, this morning’s session was run as a single, 20-minute period open to all cars.

Townsville was sunnier than the day before, but the wind was gusting upwards of 30km/h, helping to propel drivers along Boundary Street (pit straight).

Allen was quickest after the first flyers on a 1:15.3401s and backed that up with a 1:14.7406s before he brought the #1 Eggleston ZB Commodore into pit lane.

Vaughan (#5 S550 Mustang), who did not use a green tyre in practice, went longer on his first run and moved to the top with a 1:14.6877s on his third flyer.

That was the benchmark after the first runs, with Allen second, from Zach Bates (#25 Walkinshaw Andretti United ZB Commodore), Murray (#88 ZB Commodore), and Jarrod Hughes (#118 Image Racing ZB Commodore) on a 1:14.9287s.

Allen reclaimed top spot with a 1:14.6629s at the start of his second run but was bettered immediately by his team-mates, specifically Murray’s 1:14.4359s and Jordyn Sinni’s (#54 ZB Commodore) 1:14.5810s.

Murray increased his margin over the field with a 1:14.1427s next time around before Perkins moved into second place on a 1:14.2287s.

The latter clocked a 1:14.0495s on his following lap to go to the very top, before putting his cue in the rack with three minutes to go.

Campbell Logan (#2 WAU ZB Commodore) then took over third with a 1:14.3068s before he was bettered by Vaughan’s 1:14.2037s and McLeod’s 1:14.2197s in a #92 ZB Commodore which had a brake fire earlier in the session.

McLeod was quicker again to the second sector on his next lap but could not improve by the time he reached the control line and thus stayed fourth, ahead of Logan, Hughes, Rylan Gray (#55 Tickford S550 Mustang), Bates, Aaron Cameron (#27 Kelly Racing S550 Mustang), and Sinni.

Allen could not improve on his third and final run and will share Row 7 of the grid this afternoon with team-mate Cameron Crick (#38 ZB Commodore).

Race 1 of Round 3 of the Super2 Series, a 40-minute contest, is officially scheduled to start this afternoon at 13:15 local time/AEST.

Results: Qualifying for Race 1