Photo: Holden Racing Team

Garth Tander fastest in rain-hit qualifying

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Holden Racing Team driver Garth Tander was fastest in the first qualifying session for the Gold Coast 600, setting the fastest time early on before rain fell just five minutes in.

Tander’s first flying lap of 1:11.724 was enough to guarantee him a slot in the all important top ten shootout.

The two big names to miss out as the rain disrupted the session was Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom (17th) and Championship leader Craig Lownes, who suffered an ignition problem at the start of the session which prevented him from setting a quick time before the rain fell, and he and Andy Priaulx will start 15th.

All teams opted to run their full time driver in the 30 minute qualifying session.

Heading into the top ten shootout are Steve Owen & Boris Said, Jamie Whincup & Sébastien Bourdais, Alex Davison & Marc Lieb, Lee Holdsworth & Simon Pagenaud, James Courtney & Darren Turner, Will Davison & Mika Salo, Shane van Gisbergen & Emanuele Pirro, Rick Kelly & Jorg Bergmeister as well as James Moffat with Joey Hand.