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AAP
Joanna Guelas

Flawless Feeney fights back for pole at The Bend 500

Broc Feeney will start in pole position at The Bend 500 as he chases a maiden Supercars title. (Mark Horsburgh/AAP PHOTOS)

Broc Feeney is showing no signs of stopping in his hunt for a maiden Supercars title after fending off rivals to claim pole position at The Bend 500.

The Triple Eight star blitzed the pack with a lap time of one minute and 48.654 seconds as the second-to-last driver to have a solo attempt at the South Australian track in Saturday's top-10 shootout.

Feeney had earlier been denied provisional pole by defending Bathurst 1000 champion Brodie Kostecki by just 0.0081 seconds.

Brodie Kostecki.
Brodie Kostecki (pictured) held provisional pole before Broc Feeney responded. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)

The 22-year-old was flawless in his response, winning by 0.102 seconds to claim his 14th pole of the year.

He also becomes the fifth driver to claim five straight Supercars poles, joining Peter Brock, Allan Moffat, Dick Johnson and Scott McLaughlin.

Feeney and co-driver Jamie Whincup's No.88 Chevrolet Camaro will be joined on the front row for Sunday's race by Matt Stone Racing's No.4 Camaro, shared by Cam Hill and co-driver Cameron McLeod.

Defending champion and Feeney's teammate Will Brown will start in 16th.

It's a relief for Whincup, after the seven-time Supercars champion was fined $1000 for an uncharacteristic mistake earlier in Saturday's co-drivers practice session.

Testing out the new safety-car rules, Whincup clipped the left-rear of teammate Scott Pye in the No.1 Camaro - driven by Brown - while approaching the "slow zone'' between the exit of turn three and turn seven.

Pye had slowed down to the mandated 80km/h, but Whincup misjudged the approach and made contact with Pye before going off-track.

Whincup was able to continue the session in Feeney's No.88 Camaro, while Pye's car returned to the garage early.

"I said to Broc, 'Can you qualify on a pole so I don't have anyone in front of me?'" Whincup joked.

"I'm going to try to keep it a bit cleaner tomorrow than I did today. That's the aim."

Kostecki, who won last year's Bathurst 1000 with Todd Hazelwood, will start third.

Tickford's Cam Waters qualified fourth-fastest, with teammate Thomas Randle fifth.

Ryan Wood was primed to surge up the order after going the fastest in the opening sector in 41.235 seconds, but the Walkinshaw Andretti United youngster struggled with steering and ran off at turn eight to crash to 10th.

Wood's teammate and two-time Bathurst 1000 winner Chaz Mostert will start eighth.

Mostert
Chaz Mostert will start in eighth spot at The Bend for Sunday's race. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)

Feeney leads the pack by 345 points ahead of the opening Enduro Cup race, in front of Grove Racing rival Matt Payne and third-placed Brown.

Payne, sharing his Ford Mustang with five-time Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander, will start sixth.

Triple Eight's wildcard entrant Craig Lowndes, co-driver to Super2 star Zach Bates, will start second-last in 26th.

THE BEND 500 TOP-10 SHOOTOUT RESULTS:

1. Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup (Triple Eight Race Engineering)

2. Cam Hill/Cameron McLeod (Matt Stone Racing)

3. Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood (Dick Johnson Racing)

4. Cam Waters/Mark Winterbottom (Tickford Racing)

5. Thomas Randle/James Moffat (Tickford)

6. Matt Payne/Garth Tander (Grove Racing)

7. Anton De Pasquale/Harry Jones (Team 18)

8. Chaz Mostert/Fabian Coulthard (WAU)

9. Cooper Murray/Jobe Stewart (Erebus Motorsport)

10. Ryan Wood/Jayden Ojeda (Walkinshaw Andretti United)

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