The Nissan Altima of Rick Kelly will start today’s second race from ARMOR ALL Pole Position, with the 2006 Champion also earning the lap record at Hidden Valley in qualifying.
The #15 Jack Daniel’s driver shot to the top of the times on soft tyres, beating out Fabian Coulthard by just 0.01sec with his 1min06.4311 lap around the 2.9km circuit on the Dunlop soft tyres.
He smashed the lap record set in practice this morning by Coulthard, and earned his first pole since Sandown 2011, and his first in a Nissan. At the last round at Winton, Kelly earned his first podium finish in the Altima, and the form has continued at a track the team didn’t feel the car would be suited to.
“I tell you what, we didn’t expect pole here at Darwin, I’m excited about that!” Kelly said. His stablemate Michael Caruso also cracked the top 10, coming home seventh.
“We hadn’t had soft compound to practice on here so we had to guess what grip it would offer. The car’s been great, we’ve improved it through the weekend.”
Following the Freightliner Commodore was Prodrive’s Chaz Mostert, who has been the form qualifier this season, Shane van Gisbergen in the Darrell Lea STIX Commodore and Craig Lowndes.
Lowndes’ Red Bull teammate and defending champion Jamie Whincup was down the order in 17th.
Race one fast man James Courtney starts seventh, with Tim Slade, Scott Pye and Mark Winterbottom rounding out the top 10.
Courtney starts from pole position in the upcoming race 13 at the SKYCITY Triple Crown, beginning at 2.55pm EST.
