Stanaway fastest as Brown crash ends GC500 qualifying

Brown spun at Turn 11 in the dying moments of the session, tagging the fence with the right-rear of his Triple Eight Camaro.

That left Brown stranded facing the wrong way. He was collected by Nick Percat and, upon attempting to reverse out of trouble, then copped another hit from Tim Slade.

The session was immediately red-flagged. Brown was seventh on the timesheet but was demoted to 11th – crucially out of the Top 10 Shootout – as his best time was deleted for causing the stoppage.

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“I’ve been locking rears in there for the last two sessions and just thought I’d get it turned but didn’t and locked the rears, slapped the fence,” explained Brown.

“Unfortunately, it took a couple of other cars out of their quali, sorry to them, but these things happen, it’s Gold Coast. We’ll press on and see how we end up.”

Grove Racing’s Stanaway had moments earlier shot to the top of the order with a 1:10.4448s effort ahead of fellow Ford men Chaz Mostert, Cam Waters and Thomas Randle.

Broc Feeney, Matt Payne, James Golding, David Reynolds, James Courtney and Brodie Kostecki will complete the Shootout field.

The top 10 were separated by less than half a second in a typically tight 15-minute Gold Coast session.

Mostert had led Feeney, Waters and Randle ahead of the final runs, at which point neither Grove entry of Stanaway or Payne were inside the 10.

The Top 10 Shootout will take place ahead of the 250km opening leg of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 this afternoon.

Brown enters today’s race 204 points ahead of teammate Feeney, with Ford drivers Mostert and Waters 225 and 464 behind the leader respectively.

There are 600 points still up for grabs; with 150 awarded to the winner of each race at the Gold Coast 500 and Adelaide 500.