Photo: V8 Supercars Media

Shane Van Gisbergen takes pole position for the 2014 Bathurst 1000

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Shane Van Gisbergen has claimed pole position for this year’s running of the Bathurst 1000km race at Mount Panorama, outperforming Ford’s Mark Winterbottom in the pole position shootout, while yesterday’s lap record holder Fabian Coulthard could only manage fifth.

Craig Lowndes was out first in the repaired Triple Eight Holden, with the top ten shootout reduced to nine cars following the withdrawal of Garth Tander/Warren Luff’s #2 Holden Racing Team.

Lowndes set a strong target lap with a time of 2:07.7304, with James Moffat next out in the Nissan Altima, but was a hundredth down on Lowndes’ time with a mistake in the first sector.

Next on track was Jack Perkins in the Charlie Schwerkolt Racing Ford Falcon, who was looking set to improve on Lowndes’ time after the first two sectors, but a mistake at the final corner Murray’s saw him lose almost half a second and qualify behind Lowndes and Moffat’s cars.

Next up was Jason Bright in the Brad Jones Racing #8 Holden Commodore, who went fastest of all with a time of 2:07.0431, seven-tenths of a second clear of Lowndes’ Triple Eight car.

Scott McLaughlin was next in the Volvo Polestar Racing S60, with the New Zealander grabbing the top spot temporarily with the first time in the 2:06s, setting a time of 2:06.7782.

Next up was last year’s Bathurst winner Mark Winterbottom in the Ford Performance Racing Falcon, and although the Ford driver made a mistake in The Dipper, he recovered to go faster than McLaughlin by just over a tenth of a second.

Dale Wood was next in the Britek Motorsport Holden, who was only able to go sixth fastest, 1.3 seconds down on Winterbottom’s time.

Shane Van Gisbergen was next out in the Tekno Autosports Holden Commodore, with the Kiwi acing every sector to go fastest with a time of 2:06.3267.

Fabian Coulthard was last to run in the Brad Jones Racing Lockwood-backed car, but the lap record holder from yesterday was only able to replicate the pace, setting a time of 2:07.0568 to go fifth fastest, although he still maintains the all-time lap record.

Shane Van Gisbergen will therefore start the 2014 Bathurst 1000 from pole position for Tekno Autosports, ahead of Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and Scott McLaughlin’s Volvo.