Broc Feeney has continued his golden qualifying form by taking pole position in the first Supercars endurance race of the season, and the maiden 500km event to be held at The Bend Motorsport Park.
The Triple Eight Chevrolet Camaro star was just good enough to take his 14th pole of the season (and fifth in a row) in the Top Ten Shoot Out, with a time of 1m48.6548s around the 5km Bend circuit.
“Stoked to do that. I knew it would have to be a big lap in the Shoot Out,” said Feeney, who leads the championship.
“The track got faster and faster as it got cooler and cooler. To grab another pole is fantastic.”
Feeney denied Cameron Hill the first pole of his Supercars career by 0.102s. The Matt Stone Racing driver made it an all-Chevrolet front row after a very strong performance sharing the car with co-driver Cameron McLeod.
“I was a little bit nervous going into it but the moment I came out of Turn 3, it just hooked up,” Hill said.
Brodie Kostecki had a great Saturday to take third in the Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang, topping the regular qualifying session and finishing his single lap a mere 0.02s behind Hill, and alongside the 2023 champion on the grid will be the Cam Waters/Mark Winterbottom Tickford Racing Ford Mustang.
Waters just edged out team-mate Thomas Randle for fourth, with Matt Payne (Grove Racing Ford) next ahead of Anton De Pasquale (Team 18 Chevrolet). Chaz Mostert was fifth fastest in the Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford, ahead of Cooper Murray (Erebus Motorsport Chevrolet) and Ryan Wood.
It was a case of what might have been for the young New Zealander, who set the fastest time to the middle of the lap before running off the road, and in the process dropping the WAU Ford to 10th on the grid.
It was a tough Saturday for Will Brown. The defending Supercars Champion will start from 16th after losing some Practice time on Saturday morning when his car, with co-driver Scott Pye at the wheel, was taken out from behind by Feeney’s car, driven at the time by co-driver Jamie Whincup.
The seven-time Supercars champion was fined A$1000 (US$665/£490) over the incident which, somewhat ironically, occurred during a Safety Car simulation, to allow co-drivers to familiarise themselves with the new Safety Car regulations in place for the endurance events.
