The veteran, who is suffering from a virus this week, rebounded from a tough Friday to qualify fourth-fastest this morning.

He clocked a 1:12.8352s and then watched on as the next three drivers failed to knock him off – qualifying fast-man Matt Payne coming closest but 0.1059s short.

“I’m actually not too well, I’ve got man flu, this flu would kill a normal man I think so luckily I’m strong,” he said.

“Thanks so much to my team, they did such an awesome job overnight. My car wasn’t the best yesterday, and they really tuned it up.

“I just want to thank everyone at Team 18 and Tradie Energy, they’ve been so supportive, and it’s been such an average start to the year so I’m glad to get this for them.”

Payne will start second ahead of Broc Feeney, Jack Le Brocq, James Courtney, Brodie Kostecki, Cooper Murray, Will Brown, Will Davison and Bryce Fullwood.

Davison, Kostecki and Feeney had been the first three on track and each went to the top with their laps.

Le Brocq was the first to fall short and was left to lament a “scrappy” lap that included a lock-up into Turn 11.

Teammate Murray then endured an even bigger lock-up at the same corner, ruining what was otherwise an impressive effort from the rookie.

“Pretty filthy with that,” he said. “It was a good lap until then, I was up on my qualifying time, but just overstepped the mark and paid the price.”

Fullwood failed to fire a shot after his team elected to run used tyres, ending up 10^th having saved green rubber for Sunday.

“There’s a big step up in grip with a green tyre around this place,” he said. “That’s alright, we’ve got tyres in the bank for tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.”

Reynolds was next out and set what would be the pole time.

Courtney was third in qualifying but could only manage fifth after a conservative start to his lap – the veteran though still excited to be in a Shootout during his final season.

“I can’t believe I’m giving this stuff up in a couple of months,” he said.

Brown was second-fastest in morning qualifying, a major improvement following a rough run of one-lap form.

The Shootout, however, was not as kind and he will start eighth.

“I made a lot of mistakes on that lap unfortunately that dropped us back in the order unfortunately,” he said.

Payne – who had set his fastest qualifying time on his second lap on the tyre – had a slow start to his Shootout lap before regaining ground in the last sector.

“I know everyone was talking about tyre temp, it’s really had to get it up here. It’s not the longest lap so there’s not a lot of time.”” he said.

“We made a pretty bold move I think to go early in the lap. I felt pretty good with the tyres but clearly not quite there for the first and sort of middle part of the second sector.

“I had to work my way back up, luckily we had a good last two corners.”

The 200km race will take place from 3pm local time.

Result: Repco Supercars Championship NTI Townsville 500, Top 10 Shootout (Race 2)