Lee Holdsworth secures shock provisional pole after late shower hits Mount Panorama

Tickford Racing’s near perfect weekend at Mount Panorama has continued this afternoon with Lee Holdsworth taking provisional pole for tomorrow’s Top Ten Shootout at the Bathurst 1000 in car #5.

Having proved their cars are dialled in to the track with Tickford cars going fastest in all practice sessions apart from one, Holdsworth worked his way up the order and put in a quick lap before rain hit the circuit to take his first ever provisional pole at Bathurst.

Though sun was basking the circuit early on in the session, the slightly higher track temperatures made it tricky for the Dunlop tyres to get multiple laps in, making it crucial for a good banker lap to be placed as soon as possible.

Heading towards the halfway mark of the session, fast laps started to roll in with the Triple Eight duo of Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen going to the top of the order, Whincup able to post a 2:04.2663 though Scott McLaughlin was on a flying lap in his DJR Team Penske entry until a red flag made him abort his lap.

Supercars rookie Jake Kostecki hit the wall at The Esses and the Dipper hard after taking too much pace into the corners, causing serious damage to the #34 Matt Stone Racing Holden Commodore while also bringing out the yellow flag, delaying the session.

With the session resumed, McLaughlin jumped up to the top of the timesheets with a 2:04.1035 despite a tardy first sector, just 0.0021 ahead of the weekend pace setting Tickford Racing car of Cam Waters while the two Triple Eight cars stayed in the pit lane.

On his second run of flying laps, van Gisbergen put in the fastest middle sector of the session, dialled in to the #97 car to put in a 2:04.0351, just over half a tenth ahead of McLaughlin to take provisional pole ahead of his fellow New Zealander.

Despite some light rain starting to fall at the top of the mountain, Lee Holdsworth put in the fastest first and final sectors to strengthen Tickford Racing’s weekend after their cars topped all practice sessions bar one.

With the rain starting to roll in, most of the field took to the pit lane to make final changes while watching the sky to see if the heavens would open any more in the final six minutes. As the five minute marker was passed, the whole field took to the track, making use of the cool track temperatures.

Just as they got to the top of the mountain, the racing gods decided to finally let the rain come down, allowing Holdsworth to take provisional pole with van Gisbergen, McLaughlin, Waters, Whincup, Fabian Coulthard (DJR Team Penske), Anton de Pasquale (Erebus Motorsport), Mostert, James Courtney (Tickford Racing) and Nick Percat (Brad Jones Racing) will join him in the Top Ten Shootout tomorrow.

Tomorrow will see two practice before qualifying, a co-driver only session at 0910 with final practice at 1135. A long break of support categories will lead up to the Top Ten Shootout at 1705 with the possibility of rain becoming more and more likely.