Winterbottom takes Bathurst pole
Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom has secured pole position for tomorrow's Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, taking his and Ford's first pole at the circuit since 2007
In a remarkably incident-free shootout, Winterbottom was the seventh car to hit the track and like four of the six cars before him, set the fastest time of the session, recording a 2m07.5377s.
But the three cars which had gone faster than him in yesterday's qualifying session were unable to do so today, though the Team Vodafone cars of Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup got close and were about a tenth and two tenths slower respectively than Winterbottom as they qualified second and third.
Fourth fastest was Lee Holdsworth, just a few hundredths slower than Whincup, with the two Holden Racing Team cars of Garth Tander and Will Davison next up in fifth and sixth, Tander moving up three places and Davison up one.
Championship leader James Courtney will line up seventh in his Jim Beam Racing Falcon, one place ahead of the fastest man in yesterday's qualfying session Jason Bright, who just could not find the grip he had yesterday, falling seven places as he was 0.86 seconds off pole with a time 1.4s slower than Friday's effort.
The only moment of note happened at the last turn for Greg Murphy, but he gathered it up to qualify ninth, with first man out on the track Paul Dumbrell maintaining his 10th position on the grid with the slowest time of the shootout.
Pos Drivers Make Time
1. Winterbottom/Youlden Ford Falcon FG 2m07.5377s
2. Lowndes/Skaife Holden Commodore VE 2m07.6201s + 0.0824s
3. Whincup/Owen Holden Commodore VE 2m07.7226s + 0.1849s
4. Holdsworth/Besnard Holden Commodore VE 2m07.7674s + 0.2297s
5. Tander/McConville Holden Commodore VE 2m07.8489s + 0.3112s
6. W Davison/Reynolds Holden Commodore VE 2m08.0379s + 0.5002s
7. Courtney/Luff Ford Falcon FG 2m08.1665s + 0.6288s
8. Bright/Halliday Holden Commodore VE 2m08.3979s + 0.8602s
9. Murphy/Simonsen Holden Commodore VE 2m08.7361s + 1.1984s
10. Dumbrell/Canto Ford Falcon FG 2m08.9597s + 1.4220s
11. Johnson/Marshall Ford Falcon FG 2m07.9635s + 0.4258s
12. R Kelly/O Kelly Holden Commodore VE 2m08.0556s + 0.5179s
13. Van Gisbergen/McIntyre Ford Falcon FG 2m08.0656s + 0.5279s
14. S Richards/Moffat Ford Falcon FG 2m08.1161s + 0.5784s
15. Caruso/Ritter Holden Commodore VE 2m08.2907s + 0.7530s
16. Ingall/Morris Holden Commodore VE 2m08.3541s + 0.8164s
17. Webb/Russell Ford Falcon FG 2m08.3753s + 0.8376s
18. A Davison/Brabham Ford Falcon FG 2m08.4052s + 0.8675s
19. Bargwanna/Seton Holden Commodore VE 2m08.4550s + 0.9173s
20. D'Alberto/Price Holden Commodore VE 2m08.5508s + 1.0131s
21. Coulthard/Baird Holden Commodore VE 2m08.6359s + 1.0982s
22. Reindler/Wall Holden Commodore VE 2m08.8156s + 1.2779s
23. Fiore/Patrizi Ford Falcon FG 2m08.8886s + 1.3509s
24. Thompson/Briscoe Holden Commodore VE 2m09.0272s + 1.4895s
25. Slade/Perkins Ford Falcon FG 2m09.0784s + 1.5407s
26. Pretty/Noske Holden Commodore VE 2m09.1773s + 1.6396s
27. T Kelly/Wood Holden Commodore VE 2m09.3223s + 1.7846s
28. Ricciardello/Douglas Holden Commodore VE 2m10.4957s + 2.9580s
29. Emery/Zukanovic Holden Commodore VE 2m11.5023s + 3.9646s
Excluded:
Assaillit/Pedersen Ford Falcon BF
Did not take part in qualifying:
J Richards/A Jones Holden Commodore VE
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