Triple Eight’s qualifying trauma continues in Townsville

Will Brown had the fastest time midway through the second leg of qualifying but elected against a second run.

Ultimately, the call proved costly as Brown plummeted down the order to 12th and below the cut to make the Top 10 Shootout.

Teammate Broc Feeney was even worse off in 18th, continuing a wretched qualifying run.

“The problem is, you run another set of tyres and say we get into the [top] six, into the [top 10] shootout, you’ve got no green tyres for the shootout, so you’re going to qualify eighth, ninth, or tenth anyway and use up your tyres for the race,” said Brown.

“We took the chance that we might not get through, but we’ll have greens (new tyres) and all that. We were hoping to get through, that was the plan, but it didn’t happen.

“No matter what, we’re probably only three or four spots worse off than where we were going to start if we ran in that last one. We’ve got green tyres, came through yesterday, we’ll do it again today.”

Provisional pole position went to Grove Racing’s Matt Payne ahead of Dick Johnson Racing driver Brodie Kostecki.

Ryan Wood was third fastest for Walkinshaw TWG Racing after an overnight engine change.

Friday afternoon’s race winner Cameron Waters was fourth for Tickford Racing while James Golding and the Blanchard Racing Team overcame a starter motor failure to be fifth.

The top 10 was rounded out by Thomas Randle (Tickford Racing), Rylan Gray (Dick Johnson Racing), Aaron Cameron (Grove Racing), Kai Allen (Grove Racing), and Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw TWG Racing).

Anton De Pasquale was the best of the Chevrolet Camaro contingent in 11th, narrowly missing out on the Top 10 Shootout by 0.0015s.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship, NTI Townsville 500 Qualifying Race 2