Cam Waters has bagged provisional pole for the second day straight at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 while Tickford Racing team-mate James Courtney crashed at the Beach Chicane.
Waters will be last on-track for this morning’s Top 10 Shootout for Race 26 while Repco Supercars Championship combatants Shane van Gisbergen and Brodie Kostecki got through in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Van Gisbergen might have finished higher on the timesheet but was caught out by others’ incidents at least once and possibly twice in the final minutes of the quarter-hour session.
Courtney’s prang at the Beach Chicane, though, came within the first five minutes, when he lost the rear of the #5 Mustang and went nose-first into the tyre wall.
The 2010 champion was able to drive back to the pits, even though the degree of difficulty was increased when the bonnet flew up and blocked most of the windscreen.
Meanwhile, team-mate Declan Fraser (#56 Mustang) had been fastest after the first flyers on a 1:12.5317s before Waters went to a 1:10.9440s in the #6 Tickford Mustang which won the previous afternoon’s race.
Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) then set a 1:10.7562s before van Gisbergen (#97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro) clocked a new fastest lap of the weekend, a 1:10.5209s.
Kostecki (#99 Coca-Cola Camaro) moved to second on a 1:10.7414s but David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang) usurped both with a 1:10.5011s.
They were still top three when the final runs began, but Waters jumped from eighth to the top with a 1:10.4635s.
Will Brown (#9 Coca-Cola Camaro) picked up a kerb hop on his first flyer of the run and had just been knocked out of the top 10 by Thomas Randle (#55 Tickford Mustang) when he dug out a 1:10.4878s to vault to second-quickest.
Van Gisbergen set a new fastest first sector but did not convert that into a faster lap, possibly due to the presence of the stricken #96 Pizza Hut Camaro of Macauley Jones at Turn 11.
He still got back to the control line in enough time for one more lap and was fastest to the second sector but, again, went no faster all-told.
Notably, van Gisbergen had been running just seconds behind Triple Eight Race Engineering team-mate Broc Feeney, who happened upon a mess at the final corner on his last lap.
Fraser was nosed into the tyre wall, with Bryce Fullwood (#14 Middy’s Camaro) and James Golding (#31 Nulon Camaro) having to slow to get around him, ruining Feeney’s and van Gisbergen’s laps.
Kostecki, meanwhile, had triggered a kerb hop so he was not going to improve either.
Waters is thus the provisional pole-sitter, ahead of Brown, Reynolds, van Gisbergen, Kostecki, and Mostert.
Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang) was seventh-fastest, ahead of Golding, Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Mustang), and Mark Winterbottom (#18 DeWalt Camaro).
Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro) is locked into 13th and will share Row 7 with Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro).
Courtney got back out after some running repairs and salvaged 20th on the grid for Race 26.
The Top 10 Shootout starts at 11:35 local time/12:35 AEDT.
CLICK HERE for full Qualifying for Race 26 results
