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Tickford Racing veteran Lee Holdsworth landed a provisional ARMOR ALL Pole surprise in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
Holdsworth set his lap time of 2: 04.0243 with nine minutes remaining in the 40-minute qualifying session and that was good enough as the rain fell late at the top of the mountain.
It is the fifth time in six sessions to date that Tickford has finished faster, with his fleet of four fronts in good shape heading into Sunday’s Great Race.
“We still have the shootout obviously tomorrow, but this is my first time with a provisional pole at Bathurst,” Holdsworth said.
“I’m excited about Truck Assist Racing, Tickford Racing, Sammy [Scaffidi, engineer] you have done an amazing job, my little companion Caruse [co-driver Michael Caruso] He’s been so good to me, I’m just having fun
“It takes a little bit of confidence, and sometimes that confidence takes a while to recover, but it’s certainly there now.”
Shane van Gisbergen was Holdsworth’s closest competitor ahead of fit pair Scott McLaughlin and Cameron Waters.
“That session was amazing, looking at the times and seeing how close everyone is,” van Gisbergen said.
“Our car is getting better and better. We were a little heavy [on fuel]That’s why we were doing those laps to burn fuel and it would have been interesting to see that last race. “
Jamie Whincup, Fabian Coulthard, Anton De Pasquale, Chaz Mostert, James Courtney and Nick Percat joined them to reach the Top 10 Shootout tomorrow afternoon.
Behind them, the grid has been set in stone for positions 11-25, with 2017 Bathurst winner David Reynolds (13th) and Mark Winterbottom (18th) among the largest scalps.
The session came to a sudden halt at the 16 minute mark when the red flags went up.
The cause was Jake Kostecki’s UNIT Racing Commodore, which had crashed into the wall at the Esses, making contact twice with the unforgiving barriers.
It had already been an eventful race for Kostecki, who had overtaken co-driver Zane Goddard in practice to earn the right to contest qualifying, as he escaped at Murray’s Corner and then took the shortcut at Skyline.
The young man will start the Great Race from 25th and last place.
Most, albeit not of the Red Bull Holden Racing Team leading duo of Whincup and van Gisbergen, rushed to record a fast lap immediately after the 11-minute delay as clouds loomed over the mountain.
McLaughlin quickly made it to the top, with Waters following him on the other side of the line just 0.0021 slower.
Van Gisbergen rose to the top shortly after returning to the track, only for Holdsworth to overtake him by a mere hundredth, going one step away from sneaking in at 2:03.
The rain finally came, about three minutes from the end, to dampen the hopes of the late runners.
Percat was the big winner from that, holding on to the 10th, with Bryce Fullwood just losing.
“I can’t believe we did the 10,” Percat said.
“I was looking forward to the last race, but the gear position sensor was broken, so on my underhand I was rolling to a stop and all kinds of things. We are lucky.”
Two more practice sessions, at 9:10 am and 11:35 am local time, will precede the Shootout at 5:05 pm.
