A crook-sounding Chris Pither has voiced his disappointment at missing the Darwin Triple Crown Top 10 Shootout by a mere three thousandths of a second.

The Kiwi suffered a disappointing run last month at Winton Motor Raceway but has bounced back nicely at Hidden Valley Raceway, securing 11th on the grid for Race 16 this afternoon.

Pither was seventh in the opening segment of qualifying and went within a whisker of progressing into the one-lap dash.

That didn’t leave him satisfied, though.

“It’s kind of disappointing to be honest,” said the #22 Coca-Cola No Sugar Racing steerer.

“We had a tough round at Winton, it just didn’t click for us, so we needed to bounce back here because we did show some potential at the previous few rounds and then we lost our way at Winton.

“It is nice to sort of be back where we were but at the same time I think it was a hundredth to the top 10 so I am actually spewing about that, to be honest.

“But we know the potential is there. Again I was a little bit out of sync so there’s always what ifs – if I had a tow, maybe that would have been the difference, but it is what it is.

“At least we’re in a good position, we can build something from that this afternoon.”

Despite struggling to talk, Pither assured he will be fine to line up on the grid, nine places ahead of PremiAir Racing team-mate Garry Jacobson.

“I actually feel pretty decent, it’s just the voice has gone now,” he said.

“So I’ll drink some more Coca-Cola and hopefully that will be the remedy and I’ll be good to go this arvo.”

Race 16 begins 15:25 local time/15:55 AEST.