Photo: Holden Racing Team

Tander & McConville take pole position

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Garth Tander has taken pole position for the first race at the Gold Coast 600, after a sensational third sector put him ahead of series leader James Courtney in the top-ten shootout.

Bottle-O Racing driver Paul Dumbrell surprised in third, setting the best sector times in the first two parts of the twisty Surfers Paradise street circuit. Dumbrell is the top of the runners paired with an ‘international’ competitor; that being 1997 Formula 1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve.

Mark Winterbottom and Luke Youlden will start fourth, with Lee Holdsworth & Greg Ritter fifth. The next car with an international driver is the Triple Eight Holden Commodore of Craig Lowndes and Andy Priaulx in sixth place.

Other international touring car drivers didn’t make the top ten shootout, with their full time co-drivers unable to break into the top ten in the earlier qualifying session.

This means Yvan Muller will start 19th with Greg Murphy in the Castrol Racing Holden; Fabrizio Giovanardi 23rd sharing with Karl Reindler in the Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing entry; Tiago Monteiro with Tony D’Alberto 24th, Gianni Morbidelli & Dean Fiore 25th, and Alain Menu 28th with Jason Bright.