Shane van Gisbergen emerged from a treacherous qualifying session to take his first BNT V8 SuperTourer pole position for the first of the Brother 350 races on Sunday at Pukekohe Park on Sunday.
Second was Scott McLaughlin, a race winner here in Supercars at the ITM 400 and clearly happy to be back, this time aboard his Supercheap Auto Racing Holden. John McIntyre was an impressive third, his attacking style in the conditions a joy to watch. Series leader Greg Murphy starts fourth.
It was the ‘big three’ – SVG, McLaughlin and Murphy – that made the early running in the session with the first runs putting van Gisbergen ahead of Greg and Scott. Angus Fogg was another to be right on the pace early on, though he was half a second or so off the leader’s ultimate pace.
Simon McLennan, John McIntyre and Ant Pedersen all topped the timesheets momentarily as the session reached half way and the drivers got to grips with the tricky conditions, but it was SVG, McLaughlin and Murph that were consistently at the front.
The ‘really’ bad rain held off for the rest of the 20 minute session, with the drivers lapping some nine seconds slower than they had in dry free practice. A late spin into the tyre barrier on the standing water by Dominic Storey spelt the end of the session and at that point, SVG was ahead on a 1 minute 11.467 lap, from McLaughlin, a resurgent John McIntyre and Murphy who had set the pace for most of the session before slipping back as the three ahead got extra runs in.
His main challenger in the title hunt – Ant Pedersen – lines up fifth, with Dominic Storey a solid sixth – though he will have given his mechanics a late night tonight following his shunt.
Angus Fogg starts seventh, with the top ten completed by Ash Walsh, Richard Moore and Andy Booth. Andre Heimgartner starts eleventh, Mitchell Cunningham twelfth, Tim Edgell thirteenth, Simon Evans fourteenth, Kayne Scott an impressive fifteenth in the United Videos Ford after a long lay-off from SuperTourer racing and Eddie Bell sixteenth. Daniel gaunt was a disappointed seventeenth in the Tasman Motorsports Ford, with Paul Manuell and early session front runner Simon McLennan on the final row.
