Woods qualifies on V8 SuperUtes pole at Tasmania

Craig Woods has qualified on pole position for Round 1 of the Haltech V8 SuperUte Series at Symmons Plains.

The Western Sydney Motorsport driver was quickest of all in the 15-minute hit-out thanks to the lap which he set straight out of the box, with Sieders Racing Team’s Aaron Borg ending up 0.0217s off the pace in second.

It was not a straightforward hit-out for Woods, however.

“It was a bit eventful today,” he recalled.

“I feel we were lucky to end up on pole position after we had a problem with the front end.

“We’ll count our blessing there that it didn’t happen in the race and move on.

“But this is our first pole in the category so I’m pretty excited to lead from the front tomorrow morning.”

Woods had been fastest by more than half a second once the first flyers were done, on a 1:01.8528s, before Aaron Borg closed the gap with a 1:01.8953s and a 1:01.8745s on consecutive laps.

A red flag came in the sixth minute after Ellexandra Best hit the fence under the bridge, before the session restarted with just over six minutes remaining until the chequered flag.

There were few major changes for the balance of the session, with Woods not venturing back onto the race track and Borg unable to improve on his earlier personal-best.

Craig Dontas did, clocking a 1:02.0479s, but had already been third-quickest at the time of the stoppage and that is where the #45 SRT entry is set to start Race 1.

George Gutierrez elevated himself a full row to fourth position with a 1:02.1428s in the last three minutes of the session, shuffling Ben Walsh back to fifth and Tasmanian Layton Barker to sixth.

Rounding out the top 10 were Jaiden Maggs, Harry Gray, Rohan Barry, and Richard Mork.

From 11th onwards were David Casey, Dean Brooking, Craig Jenner, and Best, whose ute will be repaired for tomorrow’s action, with Chris Formosa not going out for Qualifying.

Earlier, Woods had also set the pace in the sole practice session, on a 1:01.9270s.

In Qualifying for Round 2 of the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars Super Series, Josh Anderson beat Tom Hayman to pole position by 0.0720s.

Both categories have two races tomorrow at the Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, and another two each on Sunday.

Results: Qualifying