Waters tops Sunday qualifying as four Finalists miss Shootout

Ryan Wood (13th), Brodie Kostecki (14th), Anton De Pasquale (17th) and Will Brown (18th) all failed to fire when it mattered in Q2.

Brown’s trouble was the most dramatic, spinning his Red Bull Ampol Camaro at the first chicane to cause a red flag with just over two minutes remaining.

The rear of the Camaro grazed the tyre barrier on the inside of Turn 3, before bumping front-on into the concrete on the opposite side.

Remarkably, the car escaped the incident with only superficial damage and was able to rejoin as soon as the session went green.

It was all for naught though as Brown triggered a kerb sensor on his subsequent lap, an issue that also befell Kostecki.

“We were very, very lucky,” surmised Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup.

“That should have been a write-off, we should have been on the trailer on the way home, but thankfully the damage wasn’t as bad.”

BROWN ESCAPES A BRUTAL SHUNT 🤯#RepcoSC #Supercars pic.twitter.com/nXZflfnI6y

— Supercars (@supercars) October 26, 2025

Kostecki was meanwhile left to rue his kerb strike aboard a Dick Johnson Racing Mustang that was the subject of an overnight rebuild.

“I think it’s just got a bad wheel bearing, but the boys did a fantastic job with the car. It was pretty faultless to be honest,” he said.

“The car’s got plenty of speed, it was really unfortunately. We were a millimetre out and got a kerb hop in the end there. That lap was looking pretty good.”

The late scramble left Waters on top from Chaz Mostert, Matt Payne, Broc Feeney, Thomas Randle, Richie Stanaway, Andre Heimgartner, Aaron Cameron, James Courtney and Kai Allen.

Matt Stone Racing’s Nick Percat ended up on the wrong side of the Shootout cut-off in 11th, one place ahead of Brad Jones Racing’s Bryce Fullwood.

Those eliminated in Q1 and set to start 19th through 24th were Cam Hill, Jack Le Brocq, Cooper Murray, James Golding, Macauley Jones and David Reynolds.

Reynolds did not take to the circuit after a brake issue was discovered with his Team 18 Camaro just minutes before the start of the session.

“It’s happened once before for us this year. He jumped into the car, went to set his brake bias and you can feel the pedal losing pressure,” explained team boss Adrian Burgess.

“The fluid weeps past the seal and if you go out, you’re not going to have the retardation, so the only thing you can do is change the cylinder. It’s a bit of a pain in the arse.”

Murray did complete the session after a somewhat unheralded repair effort from the Erebus Motorsport crew following a crash in yesterday’s race.

“It was a big job, and they got it done,” he said.

“The car felt good out there this morning mechanically, but we just missed the setup window a bit unfortunately. It felt like I had a four-wheel slide going on the whole session.

“We’ve got a bit of work to do for the race.”

The Top 10 Shootout will take place from 11:35am local time.

Results: Gold Coast 500 Race 2 qualifying