Payne tops Sunday Townsville qualifying, Brown only 19th

Payne set a session-best 1:12.8435s in the second leg of qualifying, putting a mere 0.0025s on Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters.

Brodie Kostecki continued his strong qualifying form for Dick Johnson Racing in third ahead of fourth-placed Chaz Mostert in his Walkinshaw TWG Racing Toyota.

Broc Feeney was fifth fastest ahead of Thomas Randle (Tickford Racing), Ryan Wood (Walkinshaw TWG), impressive performer Jayden Ojeda (PremiAir Racing), Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing) and Kai Allen (Grove Racing).

Team 18 duo David Reynolds and Anton De Pasquale narrowly missed out on making the Top 10 Shootout in 11th and 13th respectively, sandwiching Blanchard Racing Team driver Aaron Cameron.

Triple Eight’s qualifying conundrum continued with Will Brown missing the cut from Q1 to Q2.

Brown was the first driver in the dropzone in 19th. He clocked a 1:13.6995s to end the first leg of qualifying 0.7739s away from Walkinshaw TWG Racing’s pacesetter Ryan Wood.

“Qualified terrible again. We’ve had no pace in qualifying all weekend,” said a downbeat Brown.

“We’ll fight back this arvo, but it’s disappointing. Just not getting what we want out of it. That’s tough. We’ll try, we’ll keep pushing on. Shit qualifying position really.

“No grip. Just slow. In the race I’m sure we’ll make something of it and claw our way back through, but ultimately again we’re aiming to get at the back of the 10 in this race when you’re starting 19th, you don’t give yourself a shot.”

James Golding was another driver to suffer a surprising day-on-day downturn.

Having been eighth in Saturday’s Top 10 Shootout, the Blanchard Racing Team Ford Mustang didn’t make it out of the first part of Sunday’s qualifying in 21st.

“A bit puzzled on that one, to be honest,” said Golding.

“We’re going to have to look into it further and just make sure we did everything right with the prep of the tyres and all that sort of stuff.

“I did have to pass some cars on the out-lap, so maybe I did have a bit of stuff on my tyres at the start.

“I went wide at Turn 1 so then I backed off for the second lap. Obviously it’s never optimal going on the second lap. Unfortunate, because we had good pace yesterday.”

Feeney was pleased to make it through to the shootout after having a hard time of it a day earlier.

He bemoaned a vibration during the second leg of qualifying.

“It’s pretty crazy when you’re stoked to get through to the top 18 and then into the top 10,” he said.

“Obviously we’re a bit more in the fight today. Pole is certainly not out of our reach today.

“Yesterday I was P18. To feel like we have a chance of fighting for pole today is good.

“The car is obviously feeling a lot better. We’ll see what we can do.”

The Top 10 Shootout follows at 12:10pm AEST before Race 3 at 3:05pm AEST.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship NTI Townsville 500, Qualifying Race 3