HOLDSWORTH ON TOP AT MOUNTAIN
LEE Holdworsth emerged as a qualifying giant-killer as he upstaged the championship hotshots to claim provisional pole for tomorrow’s Bathurst 1000 after a rain-marred finish to yesterday’s session.
Sitting on top with the fastest time when rain hit with less than four minutes left to run in qualifying to deny a late flurry of hot laps,
Holdsworth secured himself the final lap of the top-10 shootout with his 2min 04.02sec time at Mount Panorama.
The Tickford Racing driver, teaming with Michael Caruso, finished ahead of Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s Shane van Gisbergen (Garth Tander) and defending Bathurst champion Scott McLaughlin (Tim Slade).
Pole position will be determined in this afternoon’s top-10 shootout.
Holdsworth, whose best result at Bathurst was third, said he was ready for his opportunity in the shootout.
“This is my first time as a provisional pole at Bathurst,” Holdsworth said.
“It takes a bit of confidence and sometimes that confidence takes a little while to build back up and it’s certainly there now.
Qualifying was red-flagged halfway through the session after Matt Stone Racing’s
Jake Kostecki hit trouble and slammed into a tyre wall.
The heavy impact, which stopped the session for almost 10 minutes came as McLaughlin looked to be on track for a hot lap.
McLaughlin was back on track after an earlier “balls up” in practice when he collected the wall at high speed at the top of the mountain.
The three-time Supercars champion’s DJR Team Penske squad repaired the damage to his No.17 Mustang in time for the qualifying session.
Cameron Waters (Will Davison) and Jamie Whincup (Craig Lowndes) rounded out the top five in qualifying, but 2017 Bathurst champion David Reynolds was the biggest casualty finishing outside the top 10.