Kostecki seals Supercars pole for Darwin opener, Feeney falters

The Dick Johnson Racing driver set a session-best 1:06.0379s in the #17 Ford Mustang to head Team 18’s Anton De Pasquale in the #18 Chevrolet Camaro by 0.0251s at the chequered flag.

It was a strong performance from Kostecki who missed Thursday’s Track to Town with a virus and was parked up for part of practice with a throttle body issue.

“I’ve been feeling a little bit unwell,’ said Kostecki.

“Just proud of everyone at the Shell V-Power Racing Team.

“We had a few dramas going into practice. I thought it was going to put us on the back foot a little bit but we showed up not too good to be honest.

“George (Commins, engineer) made a lot of big changes throughout the session and if anything it whacked our arse into gear. Stoked to have this pole.

“When we unloaded it didn’t feel too good, but we made all the right steps and I feel like we’ve got a pretty good baseline at the moment.”

It was an all-Ford row two with Grove Racing’s Matt Payne third and practice pace setter Cameron Waters fourth for Tickford Racing.

Payne had been fastest in the first leg of qualifying but couldn’t convert that speed into pole position.

Jayden Ojeda was fifth for PremiAir Racing. He had been on course to qualify fourth until Waters logged his best time at the death.

Ryan Wood (Walkinshaw TWG), Kai Allen (Grove Racing) David Reynolds (Team 18), Will Brown (Triple Eight) and Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing) rounded out the top 10.

Chaz Mostert was the first car on the outside looking in following the first leg of the two-part qualifying session, coming up just 0.015s shy of David Reynolds in 10th.

However, the biggest omission from the top 10 was Broc Feeney. He was only 13th in practice and could only improve to 12th in qualifying.

Race 1 at the Darwin Triple Crown gets underway at 5:30pm AEST.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship betr Darwin Triple Crown, Qualifying Race 1