Tickford’s Cam Waters took out pole position for Sunday’s 250km race at Townsville as Supercars drivers bemoaned on-track entertainment that turned the shootout into a farce.
Championship leader Will Brown was the first man to put down a time but he immediately rued an unexpected change in conditions.
Brown, who ended the session with the slowest time by far, was vindicated when Dick Johnson Racing veteran Will Davison complained following his lap.
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The drivers all pointed to drifting burnouts between race sessions as the cause of the sudden lack of grip.
“It’s like a gender reveal out there,” said Davison, racing just days after welcoming his first child into the world.
“There’s just pink burnout rubber everywhere. It’s actually pretty dumb, to be honest, to run that before the shootout.
“You’re on your outlap just driving through oil and it’s just going to clean up and get faster every lap.
“I was just wheel-spinning for hundreds of metres. I was looking at all the pink and blue thinking ‘I see where the grip’s gone’. Frustrating.”
Davison said he was “just a passenger slipping and sliding”.
Waters, meanwhile, moved up from second after qualifying this morning to pole for the race, setting a time that could not be matched by final runner Brodie Kostecki.
“Track was massively different to quali,” Waters said.
“It was pretty loose then (in the shootout).”
Walkinshaw Andretti United have a repair job on their hands ahead of the race after Chaz Mostert bumped the wall on his shootout lap.
Reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen will start Sunday’s race – his 500th in the category – from last place following a spin in qualifying earlier on Sunday.
Triple Eight teammate Broc Feeney, who finished second in Saturday’s race, also missed the shootout and will start 13th.
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Shootout results
1. Cam Waters 1:14.418
2. Jack Le Brocq +0.164
3. Thomas Randle +0.217
4. Brodie Kostecki +0.229
5. David Reynolds +0.294
6. Anton De Pasquale +0.416
7. Will Davison +0.562
8. Andre Heimgartner +0.610
9. Will Brown +0.854
10. Chaz Mostert (no time)
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