Sydney Supercars: Pole for Heimgartner, Triple Eight struggles

Andre Heimgartner stormed to pole for the night race at Sydney Motorsport Park while both Triple Eight drivers struggled.

Heimgartner and his Brad Jones Racing Camaro were unstoppable in the final two segments of the three-part battle for pole, topping the second segment with a remarkable 1m29.280s before running early in Q3, banking a 1m29.422s.

That would have been good enough for pole, but he went back out for a final run anyway and improved to a 1m29.344s to put the position beyond doubt.

"It's harder that way because you can't screw it up, but the car was awesome," said Heimgartner.

"We made some good tunes in practice. Throughout that session, we managed to get to the last [segment] with two sets [of tyres].

"We've been so close to this throughout the year, been second by a tiny, tiny amount. So to finally get one is a big monkey off our back."

Brodie Kostecki fell eight-hundredths short as he booked his spot on the outside of the front row.

That left him well and truly the best of the drivers currently considered to be in title contention.

Shane van Gisbergen dropped out of qualifying in Q2

Cam Waters was the best of the Fords in third, although that could have been better had he not run wide at the last corner on his Q3 run.

Series leader Will Brown qualified fourth ahead of a gaggle of Camaros – Jack Le Brocq, Bryce Fullwood, James Golding and Cameron Hill.

Chaz Mostert and Will Davison were ninth and 10th, while David Reynolds was left on the wrong side of the Q2/Q3 bubble and will start from 11th.

Meanwhile, it was a tough qualifying for the title-contending Triple Eight pair.

Van Gisbergen has work to do tonight after making a critical mistake in the second segment. The Kiwi opted for a single shot at progression late in the session but copped a track limits infringement at Turn 5 on his push lap.

That left him 20th on the grid for the race.

His teammate Broc Feeney didn't fare much better and will start from 16th.

Anton De Pasquale was the surprise in Q1, the DJR Ford driver bundled out in the first segment.

He'll start the race from 23rd while Nick Percat (21st) and Matt Payne (24th) also failed to make it through to Q2.

The only night race on the calendar kicks off at 7:30pm local time.

Sydney SuperNight qualifying results

Driver Info

Cla	Driver	#	Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	A. Heimgartner Andre Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing	8	Chevrolet	8	1'29.3447		157.345
2	B. Kostecki Brodie Kostecki Erebus Motorsport Penrite	99	Chevrolet	9	+0.0817	0.0817	157.201
3	C. Waters Cameron Waters Tickford Racing	6	Ford Mustang GT	8	+0.2319	0.1502	156.938
4	W. Brown Will Brown Erebus Motorsport Penrite	9	Chevrolet	9	+0.2629	0.0310	156.884
5	J. Le Brocq Jack Le Brocq Matt Stone Racing	34	Chevrolet	8	+0.4130	0.1501	156.621
6	B. Fullwood Bryce Fullwood Brad Jones Racing	14	Chevrolet	9	+0.4603	0.0473	156.539
7	J. Golding James Golding PremiAir Racing	31	Chevrolet	9	+0.5640	0.1037	156.358
8	C. Hill Cameron Hill Matt Stone Racing	35	Chevrolet	10	+0.7834	0.2194	155.977
9	C. Mostert Chaz Mostert Walkinshaw Andretti United	25	Ford Mustang GT	11	+1.0992	0.3158	155.433
10	W. Davison Will Davison Dick Johnson Racing	17	Ford Mustang GT	9	+1.3804	0.2812	154.951
11	D. Reynolds David Reynolds Grove Racing	26	Ford Mustang GT	9	+0.3908		156.660
12	T. Randle Thomas Randle Tickford Racing	55	Ford Mustang GT	10	+0.3926	0.0018	156.657
13	T. Slade Tim Slade PremiAir Racing	23	Chevrolet	8	+0.4335	0.0409	156.585
14	M. Winterbottom Mark Winterbottom Team 18	18	Chevrolet	7	+0.4566	0.0231	156.545
15	S. Pye Scott Pye Team 18	20	Chevrolet	9	+0.6931	0.2365	156.134
16	B. Feeney Broc Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering	88	Chevrolet	6	+0.6973	0.0042	156.127
17	T. Hazelwood Todd Hazelwood Blanchard Racing Team	3	Ford Mustang GT	10	+0.9014	0.2041	155.774
18	J. Courtney James Courtney Tickford Racing	5	Ford Mustang GT	9	+0.9884	0.0870	155.624
19	M. Jones Macauley Jones Brad Jones Racing	96	Chevrolet	9	+1.1155	0.1271	155.405
20	S. van Gisbergen Shane van Gisbergen Triple Eight Race Engineering	97	Chevrolet	4
21	N. Percat Nick Percat Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	Ford Mustang GT	4	+0.9633		155.667
22	D. Fraser Declan Fraser Tickford Racing	777	Ford Mustang GT	5	+1.0002	0.0369	155.603
23	A. De Pasquale Anton De Pasquale Dick Johnson Racing	11	Ford Mustang GT	5	+1.1090	0.1088	155.416
24	M. Payne Matthew Payne Grove Racing	19	Ford Mustang GT	4	+1.1504	0.0414	155.345
25	J. Smith Jack Smith Brad Jones Racing	4	Chevrolet	4	+2'21.7580	2'20.6076	60.830
View full results