Will Davison on top in Race 22 qualifying

Trading Post FPR Falcon driver Will Davison will be the last man out in the Top 10 Shootout for Race 22 of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Armor All Gold Coast 600 after topping this morning’s qualifying session.

Davison hovered near the top of the time sheets for the entire 30 minute session before stamping his authority with consecutive 1:11.47s and 1:11.36s efforts on his final two fliers.

Jamie Whincup ended up second fastest after getting within 0.06s of his rival’s time on his own final lap.

Mark Winterbottom moved to the top of the order with what would prove to be his best time with 12 minutes remaining, spending a lengthy spell in the pits before returning but not improving in the dying minutes.

Rick Kelly, Jonathon Webb, James Courtney, Michael Caruso, Tony D’Alberto, Shane van Gisbergen and Fabian Coulthard completed the top 10.

It was a disappointing session for David Reynolds and Craig Lowndes, whose cars will start just 12th and 13th respectively after both failing to improve on their final runs.

Davison, meanwhile, said he had relished the challenge of throwing his car around the street circuit after the electronic loops in the Turns 2 and 7/8/9/10 chicane kerbs were turned off following overnight deliberation.

“This track is so much fun. They’ve taken the sensors away overnight and the (inner) kerbs are doing a great job,” he said.

“We’re all very committed through the chicane looking at everyone’s times and my car is absolutely amazing.

“We had pole at Sandown and at Bathurst but didn’t get a result at either place, so we need to start turning this pace into some wins.”

The first 20 minutes of the session were punctuated by three red flag periods – two for debris and one to retrieve James Moffat’s stranded Norton Falcon, which had stopped at the entry to Turn 11 with a tailshaft failure.

There were also problems for Garth Tander, who qualified just 24th after a collision with David Wall ended his session early. The Wilson Security Holden driver had been warming up his tyres following the Moffat red flag restart when he swerved into the path of a charging Tander – causing significant damage to the rear of the HRT Commodore.

“After a restart like that some are warming their tyres and some are wanting to get on with it,” said Tander, whose car will start this afternoon’s race from 24th.

“He obviously didn’t see me. It was a misunderstanding and we’ll have a chat about it later on. It’s been a tough two days here but we’ll try to keep out of trouble and see where we end up.”

The Top 10 Shootout is set to get underway at 1050 local time.

See below for the full qualifying result

See below for Speedcafe.com’s Armor All Gold Coast 600 Race Guide