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Payne fastest in dramatic Bathurst 1000 qualifying

Chevrolet Ford Matt Payne Bathurst 1000 David Reynolds Brodie Kostecki Cameron Waters C Waters Will Davison Erebus Motorsport

Matt Payne took provisional pole position for the Bathurst 1000 after a qualifying session of fine margins at Mount Panorama.

Payne and his Grove Racing Ford streaked around the 6.213km circuit in a time of 2m05.6452s to edge out fellow Mustang pilot Cameron Waters by a scant 0.0060s.

“It just seemed to hook up really nicely and it just seemed to turn really well at 'The Grate',” he explained after the lap.

“The previous practice we did not have such a good run on green tyres. I knew the car was better than that. I knew we were going to be in the top five, but P1 is pretty cool.”

Waters, who nearly had a crash at Forrest's Elbow during the session, revealed he had also suffered a reliability scare in the early stages.

“It was a pretty intense session, I had an engine problem to start with and that cleared,” he said.

“Everyone is trying so hard, even in practice one, it was crazy how fast everyone was going. I am just lucky I am not one of the ones crashing.”

The session featured a pair of red flags, with the first coming with 23 minutes remaining on the clock as David Reynolds lost control of the rear of his Team18 Chevrolet Camaro at The Dipper, collecting the wall where team-mate Warren Luff had performed a miraculous escape earlier in the weekend.

Will Davison, Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang GT (Photo by: Edge Photographics)

The second came due to a crash at the same corner after Shell V-Power Racing driver Will Davison destroyed all four corners of his Ford Mustang on his final push. 

This crash ruined Broc Feeney's attempt to top the session, although he remained the highest-placed Chevrolet driver in third. Prior to the red flags being displayed, he had been 0.25s up on Payne's benchmark.

The Triple Eight man was 0.0081s faster than 2023 polesitter Brodie Kostecki, who set the fourth fastest time and clattered the wall at Sulman Park, requiring a mid-session suspension change which cost eight minutes of track time.

Highlighting how close the session was, Kostecki's time was 0.0194s away from Payne.

Championship leader Will Brown secured his shootout position in fifth, having spent the majority of the session out of the window, while Chaz Mostert was sixth. 

Andre Heimgartner, Jack Le Broc, Anton de Pasquale and Richie Stanaway rounded out those who will contest Saturday's shootout.

As a result of causing the red flags, both Reynolds and Davison saw their best times struck from the record, leaving them 21st and 16th respectively.

The Supercars will be back on track at 10:05am Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time [12:05am BST], with a one-hour practice session for co-drivers only. There will be another hour's practice at 1:10pm [3:10am BST] and the top 10 shootout is due to begin at 5:05pm [7:05am BST].

Bathurst 1000 Qualifying Result

   
1
 - 
3
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
M. Payne
Australia G. Tander Penrite Racing 		19 Ford Mustang GT 13

2'05.6452

   178.015
2 Australia C. Waters Australia J. Moffat Monster Castrol Racing 6 Ford Mustang GT 14

+0.0060

2'05.6512

 0.0060 178.007
3
B. Feeney
Australia J. Whincup Red Bull Ampol Racing 		88 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 10

+0.0113

2'05.6565

 0.0053 177.999
4
B. Kostecki
Australia T. Hazelwood Erebus Motorsport Penrite 		1 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 7

+0.0194

2'05.6646

 0.0081 177.988
5 Australia W. Brown Australia S. Pye Red Bull Ampol Racing 87 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 13

+0.1211

2'05.7663

 0.1017 177.844
6 Australia C. Mostert Australia L. Holdsworth Mobil 1 Optus Racing 25 Ford Mustang GT 15

+0.1436

2'05.7888

 0.0225 177.812
7 New Zealand A. Heimgartner
D. Fraser R&J Batteries Racing
8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 15

+0.2816

2'05.9268

 0.1380 177.617
8 Australia J. Le Brocq
J. Ojeda Erebus Motorsport Penrite
9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 12

+0.3323

2'05.9775

 0.0507 177.545
9 Australia A. De Pasquale Australia T. D'Alberto Dick Johnson Racing 11 Ford Mustang GT 12

+0.3490

2'05.9942

 0.0167 177.522
10 New Zealand R. Stanaway Australia D. Wood Penrite Racing 26 Ford Mustang GT 13

+0.4600

2'06.1052

 0.1110 177.366
11 Australia J. Golding Australia D. Russell PremiAir Nulon Racing 31 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 12

+0.5129

2'06.1581

 0.0529 177.291
12
C. Hill
C. Crick Tyrepower Racing
4 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 15

+0.5229

2'06.1681

 0.0100 177.277
13 Australia N. Percat
D. O'Keeffe Bendix Racing
10 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 14

+0.5336

2'06.1788

 0.0107 177.262
14 Australia W. Davison
K. Allen Dick Johnson Racing
17 Ford Mustang GT 12

+0.5628

2'06.2080

 0.0292 177.221
15
R. Wood
New Zealand F. Coulthard Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing 		2 Ford Mustang GT 15

+0.6060

2'06.2512

 0.0432 177.161
16 Australia J. Evans Australia D. Fiore SCT Motorsport 50 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 15

+0.6080

2'06.2532

 0.0020 177.158
17 Australia M. Jones
J. Boys Pizza Hut Racing
96 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 13

+0.9204

2'06.5656

 0.3124 176.721
18 Australia C. Lowndes
C. Murray Supercheap Auto Racing
888 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 12

+0.9429

2'06.5881

 0.0225 176.689
19 Australia T. Randle
T. Everingham Monster Castrol Racing
55 Ford Mustang GT 15

+0.9504

2'06.5956

 0.0075 176.679
20
A. Love
A. Cameron Brad Jones Racing
3 Ford Mustang GT 12

+1.0270

2'06.6722

 0.0766 176.572
21 Australia D. Reynolds Australia W. Luff Tradie Beer Racing 20 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 4

+1.0355

2'06.6807

 0.0085 176.560
22 Australia M. Winterbottom Australia M. Caruso DEWALT Racing 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 13

+1.0916

2'06.7368

 0.0561 176.482
23 Australia J. Courtney J. Perkins Snowy River Racing 7 Ford Mustang GT 11

+1.1023

2'06.7475

 0.0107 176.467
24 Australia B. Fullwood
J. Robotham Middy's Racing
14 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 12

+1.2708

2'06.9160

 0.1685 176.233
25 Australia T. Slade
C. McLeod PremiAir Nulon Racing
23 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 12

+1.3339

2'06.9791

 0.0631 176.145
26 M. Chahda
B. Vaughan Matt Chahda Motorsport
118 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 15

+2.3071

2'07.9523

 0.9732 174.805
View full results  
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