Zach Bates stuns to claim Bathurst 1000 pole position
Zach Bates claimed a sensational pole position for the Supercars Championship Bathurst 1000 after beating Brodie Kostecki in Saturday’s Top Ten Shootout at Mount Panorama.
The Matt Stone Racing driver, who topped Friday’s qualifying session, delivered a lap of 2:04.2062 in his Chevrolet Camaro to beat Dick Johnson Racing Ford driver Kostecki by 0.285 seconds.
The result marked a maiden Supercars pole position for the 22-year-old rookie, as well as a first Bathurst 1000 pole for Matt Stone Racing.
Kostecki had been chasing a record fourth consecutive Bathurst 1000 pole position and looked set to achieve it after posting a 2:04.4912, almost half a second clear of the field at that stage.
However, Bates was the final driver to complete his lap and went fastest in all three sectors to secure pole position.
Anton De Pasquale came closest to Kostecki, qualifying third for Team 18, just 0.038 seconds behind the Ford driver and 0.323 seconds from pole.
Erebus Motorsport driver Cooper Murray claimed fourth position, 0.491 seconds from Bates, ahead of Matt Stone Racing’s Jack Le Brocq in fifth.
Triple Eight Race Engineering driver Will Brown qualified sixth after struggling with oversteer during his lap, finishing ahead of PremiAir Racing’s Jayden Ojeda.
David Reynolds was eighth for Team 18, followed by Blanchard Racing Team’s James Golding and Grove Racing’s reigning Bathurst 1000 winner Matt Payne.
Bates will share his Chevrolet Camaro with Aaron Seton in Sunday’s 161-lap race, while Kostecki will be joined by Todd Hazelwood on the front row.
The 2026 Bathurst 1000 starts at 11:30 local time/02:30 CEST on Sunday.
