Repco Supercars Championship winner Shane van Gisbergen has taken his third pole position of the season at Winton in record setting pace.
Using the three-segment knockout format, Supercars qualifying provided surprises as there were a few high profile scalps among the seven drivers failing to progress.
Mobil 1 NTI Racing’s Nick Percat, Todd Hazelwood for Truck Assist Racing and Blanchard Team Racing’s Tim Slade all were knocked out as a late lap by van Gisbergen finished at the top on a 1m 18.237s to better David Reynolds by 0.019s.
Others failing to progress include Wildcard Erebus driver Jordan Boys, SCT Logistic Racing’s Jack Smith, plus PremiAir Racing duo Chris Pither and Garry Jacobson.
In the second phase, Reynolds again set the early pace at a 1m 18.725s before this was eclipsed by Mostert to the tune of 0.392s, however the Kelly Grove Racing driver responded to top the session with a 1m 18.271s.
Monster Energy Racing’s Cameron Waters was third from van Gisbergen, Anton De Pasquale in the sole Shell V-Power Racing entry to make the final segment, earlier fast man Will Brown, rookie Broc Feeney, Andre Heimgartner, Lee Holdsworth and Scott Pye as all locked their spots to the final stage.
Just missing out was Boost Mobile Racing’s Brodie Kostecki, with Mark Winterbottom in the Irwin Racing ZB Commodore, Will Davison, Thomas Randle, Jake Kostecki, Macauley Jones, Jack Le Brocq, Bryce Fullwood, lead Wildcard Jayden Ojeda and James Courtney also not progressing.
The final segement was expected to be close and it did not disappoint as Brown set the early benchmark at a 1m 18.409s, but this was eclipsed by van Gisbergen by 0.145s and Waters, who fell 0.042s short of the Kiwi’s time.
Mostert also made a strong run at the end to fall 0.144s shy as Reynolds failed to emulate his earlier pace to be seventh on the grid.
Brown held onto fourth from Holdsworth, De Pasquale, Reynolds, Feeney, Heimgartner and Pye.
The opening Repco Supercars Championship encounter, Race 15 of the season will start at 3:35pm AEST.