Matt Payne has secured pole position for Saturday’s opening race of the 2026 Penrite Oil Sandown 500, edging out Cam Waters in a drama-charged Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout.
The championship leader bounced back from a recent qualifying slump for Penrite Racing, clocking a 1:09.0254s lap to finish just 0.0796 seconds clear of Waters, with the pair locking out the front row for the endurance opener.
Reigning champion Chaz Mostert will start from 10th after a high-speed off in the Shootout derailed his front-row prospects, having originally progressed from Q2 in third.
The session began in greasy conditions, with drivers initially taking to the circuit on wet-weather tyres. However, rapidly clearing weather and sunshine prompted an early tactical shift. Brodie Kostecki posted the early marker at 1:13.2618s, but the drying track pushed most of the field onto the Super Soft compound. Broc Feeney pitted for slicks after just a single out lap on wets, while Mostert and Kai Allen were caught out by residual moisture at the top of the circuit, cutting through the mud at Turn 3.
Lap times plummeted late in the opening segment as Thomas Randle went fastest on a 1:11.3117s ahead of Tickford Racing teammate Waters. Feeney and Mostert both converted late flyers to escape elimination, while Jarrod Hughes, Macauley Jones, Rylan Gray, David Reynolds, Cameron Hill, and Allen were dropped, the latter suffering a heavy kerb strike at Turn 6. Kostecki also vented frustration following contact with Aaron Cameron at Turn 4.
Times continued to fall sharply in Q2, with Payne quickly lopping two and a half seconds off Randle’s Q1 pace with a 1:08.8839s, before Feeney edged ahead on a 1:08.7740s.
Turn 6 proved treacherous early in the stanza, catching out Cooper Murray, Jayden Ojeda, and Jobe Stewart, with Murray narrowly keeping his #36 PremiAir entry out of the barriers at Dandenong Road. Walkinshaw TWG Racing rolled the dice on tyre strategy, fitting only two tyres to Mostert’s car and sending him out off-sequence.
The calculated risk delivered, with Mostert jumping to third at the chequered flag, joining Anton De Pasquale and Kostecki inside the transfer zone.
Payne ended the second stanza with provisional pole courtesy of a 1:08.408s flyer. Murray snatched the 10th and final shootout berth from Zach Bates by a margin of 0.0001 seconds, consigning Ryan Wood, Cameron, James Golding, Ojeda, Jack Le Brocq, Stewart, and Jackson Walls to the outer rows.
Murray opened the Shootout on fresh rubber with a 1:09.3919s benchmark, immediately eclipsed by Will Brown’s 1:09.2398s. Andre Heimgartner dropped time across Turns 2 and 3, while De Pasquale suffered a wild slide through Turn 6 that compromised his entry into Dandenong Road. Lingering standing water at the final corner proved decisive, costing both Feeney and Randle vital tenths on turn-in.
Waters then surged to the top with a 1:09.1050s lap before Mostert overstepped through Turn 6, spinning into the gravel trap at Turn 9. Kostecki appeared poised to seize pole after setting the fastest first two sectors, but lost time crossing gravel dragged onto the racing line by Mostert’s off, falling short by just 0.0325 seconds.
Payne was the last car to run, producing a composed 1:09.2054s effort to deny Waters his first pole since July and secure prime track position for the opening race.
Race 33 of the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship is scheduled to start at 3:30pm AEDT.