Slade and Percat stun as Waters snags provisional pole

The Monster Energy Racing driver set a blistering 1:29.8144 around Sydney Motosport Park in the 15-minute session.

Although it was no great surprise from Waters, there were stunning results for PremiAir Nulon Racing’s Tim Slade in second and Bendix Racing’s Nick Percat in third.

Waters was a meagre 0.0090s faster than Slade, repeating his provisional pole position effort from a day ago.

“It was pretty good again,” said Waters.

“We didn’t stray too far from the car yesterday in a green tyre run. Much the same, which is good.

“It’s still really good over one lap. We might try some stuff in the shootout potentially.

“We’ve just got to work on our race car a bit.”

On Saturday, Waters converted provisional pole into top spot on the grid in the top 10 shootout.

However, he fell through the field to finish seventh.

“It wasn’t all car speed,” Waters explained.

“e lost a fair bit of time in the pits and then it puts you in the pack and then you’re racing in dirty air and it just exaggerates your race.

“A little bit of car set-up stuff we need to work on, which we’ve got a few ideas on. Then clean up the pit stop stuff and we’ll have a crack.”

Chaz Mostert qualified fifth in a Shell V-Power Racing Team sandwich with Will Davison fourth and Anton De Pasquale sixth.

There were nervous scenes midway through the session for the Mobil1 Optus Racing driver who aborted his first flying lap and found himself last on the ladder.

He was among the first to bank their final lap, which move him from last to first. However, he would be knocked down the pecking order as Waters, Slade, Percat, and Davison responded.

Points leader Will Brown wound up seventh for Red Bull Ampol Racing ahead of James Golding for PremiAir Nulon Racing and Truck Assist Mobil1 Racing’s Ryan Wood.

David Reynolds just broke into the top 10 shootout with a lap at the death to provisionally qualify him 10th.

There were some shockers down the field. Matt Payne failed to take his Penrite Racing entry into the top 10 after he exceeded track limits on his last lap. Race 15’s runner-up was 11th.

Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki was 13th for Erebus Motorsport, marking a day-on-day qualifying improvement for Erebus Motorsport. His teammate Jack Le Brocq was 19th after an engine change.

Broc Feeney’s bid to chase down his Red Bull Ampol Racing teammate Brown took a hit after he qualified a lowly 16th.

Thomas Randle, who finished third on Saturday night, could only manage 18th.

The top 10 shootout is scheduled for 1:40pm AEST, which will be followed by Race 16 at 4:05pm AEST.

Results: Panasonic Air Conditioning Sydney SuperNight, Qualifying Race 16