Whincup on pole at Surfers Paradise

TeamVodafone’s Jamie Whincup has continued his Bathurst winning momentum, claiming pole position for tomorrow’s opening V8 Supercar race at the Nikon Indy 300, by over six tenths of second from championship rival Garth Tander.
From the onset, the championship leader had a handle on the challenging concrete canyon, recording the quickest time in Practice 1 and topping the timesheets in two of the three qualifying sectors.

A minor problem with his gear leaver failed to hamper the performance of his #88 V8 Supercar with Whincup posting a time of 1.49.1828 with three minutes remaining on the clock.

“I am stoked,” said Whincup. “The car was fantastic right from the get go.”

“We have achieved our first goal for the weekend, now I have to capitalize on that and get out in front and stay in the clean air tomorrow.”

“I do love this track and when you have a fast car it makes it even more fun to drive,” Whincup acknowledged.

Teammate Craig Lowndes was also enjoying a good top three run until a lockup in the second half of the opening qualifying sector saw him back into the wall at Turn 4.

Lowndes ran the remainder of qualifying with damage to the right rear quarter and was fifth fastest at the completion of sector three.

“I was a little disappointed as we were on track for a top three qualifying result before my incident at Turn 4,” Lowndes explained.

“After the contact the rear of the car just didn’t respond quite as well.”

“We are starting off the third row of the grid which is still a good position to be in,” he added.

The V8 Supercars will take to the Indy track at 3.50pm tomorrow for the first of three 27 lap races.