Brown takes pole in wet shootout

Will Brown took his second pole position of the season in Supercars during a wet and wild qualifying session for the Sandown 500.

Despite the rain and showers, Brown came out on top in the Top 10 series – with a time of 1m10.2549s in the Triple Eight Chevrolet Camaro he shares with Scott Pye on Sunday, beating Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters, who shares the race with James Moffat.

“I knew it was all about who didn’t make mistakes,” Brown said.

“Great start, really excited. It was tough, between one and two there was a lot of water on the road. I knew Chaz (Mostert) would be tough to beat and also Broc (Feeney), it’s a really cool feeling.”

It looked like Waters would set the fastest time until he went off the final corner and lost 0.2 seconds.

“It was a bit of a stroke of luck actually,” he explained.

“There were rivers and dirt on the track that we had to work out on the spot. I’m pretty happy with how we’re running in a dry car; in a wet car it’s OK.”

Photo by: Supercars

Anton de Pasquale provided the shock of the shootout by finishing third, having taken the track first thanks to a tenth-place finish in the first part of qualifying. He admitted to nearly spinning at the final corner before his lap had even started, but recovered to secure a second grid position for himself and co-driver Tony D’Alberto.

“It’s always good to move forward, it was a very difficult day but to move up to third place is very exciting,” said Pasquale.

“I haven’t done many 500s, I could start one! There are some fast cars around us, it’s hard to say. Yesterday it looked good, having a fast car here is pretty good.”

Brodie Kostecki set the fourth fastest time in the Erebus Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro he shares with Todd Hazelwood with a time of 1m10.5309s, just beating reigning race winner Broc Feeney (Triple Eight Chevrolet Camaro) and Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford Mustang), who shares the race with long-term co-driver Lee Holdsworth.

Richie Stanaway (Grove Racing Ford), Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing Chevrolet), Matt Payne (Grove Racing Ford) and Ryan Wood (WAU Ford) rounded out the top 10.

Nick Percat missed the shootout by 0.04 seconds and will start the race from eleventh place in the Matt Stone Racing Chevrolet, just ahead of James Courtney (Blanchard Racing Ford).

For the first time in recent history, the race will start with the team’s ‘lead drivers’ behind the wheel, while in previous years it has been common for co-drivers to start the race before completing the required minimum number of laps.