Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup lock out front row for Sunday Gold Coast race
Triple Eight will have the best possible chance to go back-to-back around the streets of Surfers Paradise after its two cars qualified on the front row ahead of this afternoon’s 300km race.
Shane van Gisbergen was able to take pole from Jamie Whincup after the duo provisionally qualified first and third in the morning qualifying session, proving the speed of the factory Holden machines around the Gold Coast circuit.
After his crash in qualifying, Scott McLaughlin was unable to participate in the shootout, having to sit out the rest of the race weekend as the incident wrote off the #17 Mustang.
Anton de Pasquale became the first car on track but was unable to post a lap time thanks to a kerb hop on his attempt. His Erebus Motorsport team-mate David Reynolds was next out on circuit, setting the benchmark of 1:10.6461 for the remaining eight cars to chase.
Next, as the first of the two Walkinshaw Andretti United cars, James Courtney set a fast first sector but lost time in the closing stages of the lap, ultimately coming up under a tenth short of Reynolds.
Lee Holdsworth made his second shootout start of the weekend in his 200th round start, pushing the Tickford Racing car hard and coming close to the benchmark time. Through all three splits he was just a tenth of a second behind Reynolds, just missing out on provisional pole by half a tenth at the end of his lap.
Improving from his 13th place in qualifying yesterday, Will Davison was able to wrangle the 23Red Mustang into the shootout, putting in the fastest middle sector so far and driving cleanly to move to provisional pole with a time of 1:10.5182.
Cam Waters hit the track next as the third Tickford-prepared Ford in the session, looking for another pole position in 2019. While his first sector was the fastest of the shootout so far, a big launch off of one of the beachside chicane kerbs forced him to shortcut the last one, deleting the #6 car’s lap.
The session was delayed while the track officials repositioned the tyre bundle at the last chicane after Waters’ Mustang had tagged it on his way through. Scott Pye was eventually sent out to set his lap, going too hard across the back chicane and setting a slower time than team-mate Courtney.
Whincup set out for his shootout lap, carrying across the speed of his Triple Eight Commodore after winning Saturday’s opening race. The six-time polesitter at the Gold Coast venue was able to just edge out Davison for provisional pole, getting down to a 1:10.4293 in the #888 car.
Looking to displace his team-mate, or at least make it a Triple Eight front row, van Gisbergen was the last car on the circuit, setting a fast first sector to just get the edge over Whincup. Despite the car stepping out into Turn 11, the Kiwi was able to stitch together a perfect lap of 1:10.2082, going to pole and locking out the first two spots.
Davison and Reynolds will start from the second row with Holdsworth and Courtney behind, edging out Pye for the last spots of those who completed a lap. Waters and de Pasquale will begin the race from eighth and ninth respectively while the tenth spot will remain vacant after McLaughlin’s withdrawal.
Race 27 will get underway at 1500 local time and will run for up to 102 laps, closing this weekend’s Gold Coast 600.
