Kostecki clinches pole position for Taupo Supercars opener

Kostecki topped the first leg of qualifying and backed up that effort in the second part, logging a 1:26.8966s to put 0.1361s on his nearest rival Broc Feeney.

A mistake by the Triple Eight Race Engineering driver at Turn 9 on his flying lap cost him valuable time, lamenting the fact post-session.

“I was just looking at how much it cost me. To be honest, it probably would have been pretty close [to pole position], which would have been great,” said Feeney, who ran wide.

“Anyway. I’m stoked with the front row. From where we were yesterday and even the first couple of runs this morning, that’s awesome.

“Had a crack out there. Stoked to put it on the front row and we’ll try and learn from that and go one better.”

It was an all-Ford top four with Matt Payne third in the Grove Racing Mustang while Will Brown was fourth in the other Triple Eight Mustang.

Ryan Wood was fifth in the first of the Toyota Supras for Walkinshaw TWG Racing.

The top 10 was completed by Kai Allen (Grove Racing), Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw TWG Racing), Thomas Randle (Tickford Racing), Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing), and James Golding (Blanchard Racing Team).

No Chevrolet Camaros made the top 10, with Jack Le Brocq the first of them in 11th for Matt Stone Racing.

Kostecki said he was surprised to score pole position, noting the form of the Triple Eight cars on their final run on used tyres.

“Just really capitalised on the first run and you get limited tyres here,” said Kostecki.

“The car is feeling really strong so far this weekend. I didn’t really think it was going to be that great in qualifying, but stoked to get the Boost Mobile pole and we’ll see how we go off the line.

“Those Red Bull cars were quite good on the re-runs. I’m sure we’ll have our work cut out for us.

“We’ve got to regroup and go again and reset our brains for the new tyre.”

Kostecki was particularly quick through the final sector, with the best split of any driver.

“We’ve been focusing pretty much from the end of last year, trying to fix that up,” Kostecki explained.

“I feel like we were really weak last year compared to our competitors. We seemed to have made all the right steps so far. There is always room for improvement.

“Racing is a funny thing. Some things you tried two or three years ago didn’t work, now it works.

“We’re still working all that out and just stoked for everyone at Shell V-Power Racing and this Ford Mustang has been fast since Friday.”

It was a session of rocks and diamonds for DJR with Kostecki’s teammate Rylan Gray last of the 24 cars.

The second qualifying session to determine the grid for Race 2 gets underway at 8:35am AEST.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship ITM Super440, Qualifying Race 1