Kostecki claims opening Townsville pole, Triple Eight flounder

The #38 Shell V-Power Racing Ford Mustang topped the first and second leg of qualifying, setting a time just 0.084s clear of Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters to take first place on the Race 20 grid.

It was a solid showing on the whole for DJR with Will Davison third in the #17 Ford Mustang, just 0.0007s ahead of Grove Racing’s Matt Payne.

While there were smiles for the Ford team, leading Chevrolet team Triple Eight Race Engineering were only 14th and 20th with Broc Feeney and Will Brown respectively.

“I was pretty stoked with the car then,” said Kostecki, who notched his third pole position of the year.

“I wasn’t really sure where we were in practice. It was really hard to tell coming in with tyres from previous events.

“The car felt dialled on the first run of qualifying and the end of [Practice 2] as well, I just didn’t do a very good job.

“George [Commins, race engineer] did a few demon tweaks towards the end of the used tyre run and really put this Shell V-Power Mustang in the window for that green tyre run.”

Erebus Motorsport’s Jack Le Brocq set the pace initially in Q1 ahead of Thomas Randle, Kai Allen, Chaz Mostert, and Bryce Fullwood.

As the clock wound down, the cars rolled out for their second run. Feeney snuck in his penultimate lap with a few seconds left in the session. However, in the minute between him going fastest and setting his second lap, a 1:13.149s, the rest of the field improved.

Kostecki was the quickest of them, setting a 1:12.794s. The 2023 champion was followed by surprise packet Fullwood, then Mostert, Waters, and Wood.

Wood was the biggest improver from the first to the second run, rising from last. After the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver came Anton De Pasquale, Le Brocq, Randle, Davison, and Payne.

Payne’s Grove Racing teammate Allen just missed the top 10, qualifying 11th ahead of PremiAir Racing driver Richie Stanaway.

Feeney was 14th behind Aaron Cameron, but the Triple Eight star’s teammate Will Brown was worse off in 20th.

“Not really sure,” said Feeney of his lap.

“We’ve pretty much been top two all day. I thought we rolled out pretty strong, even in the first run of our first lap, we were still top two.

“Just didn’t really turn on for us just then. Just got through the first couple of corners and it didn’t feel like a terrible lap. Just probably didn’t have the grip there that we wanted.

“Started the second [lap] and was a bit faster, but then lost the tyre towards the end. A bit lost, to be honest because I thought we were in the fight for pole there.

“Anyway, we’ll see what we can do today. Lucky it’s not many points today and we’ll see what we can learn in the race and see what we did wrong for tomorrow.”

“As I said, it didn’t feel terrible. Probably just didn’t have the maximum grip that I felt like I’ve had today.

“Just turned into [Turn] 1 and didn’t find it gripped up as it has in some of the other sessions. It’s probably not a car thing, maybe it’s a tyre prep thing or something like that.

“Anyway, it’s done. We’ll see what we can do this arvo. It’s not the end of the world, we just need to make sure we’re in the fight tomorrow.”

Several drivers elected to go later in the second part of qualifying. Randle set the speed initially ahead of De Pasquale by just 0.0003s followed by Davison, Waters, and Fullwood.

Le Brocq went earlier than anyone else on the second run, setting a 1:12.811s to go quickest. He was eclipsed first by Payne, who was then beaten by Waters just seconds later before Kostecki’s pole lap.

Stablemate Davison found speed too, shooting to third. WAU weren’t able to improve, with Mostert only ninth and Wood 10th.

Race 20 of the Repco Supercars Championship at the NTI Townsville 500 gets underway at 3:40pm AEST.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship NTI Townsville 500, Qualifying Race 1