In a stunning performance, Tickford Racing’s Wildcard driver Zak Best has taken pole for Race 21 at The Bend Motorsport Park this afternoon.
Best laid down a 1m 47.816s early on during the third segment of qualifying, which proved good enough to best Repco Supercars Championship title rivals Shane van Gisbergen and Cameron Waters in the Monster Energy Tickford Racing Mustang.
Van Gisbergen fell 0.022s short of Best’s benchmark as Waters will start third alongside former teammate Chaz Mostert in the Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden ZB Commodore.
Shell V-Power Racing Team’s Anton De Pasquale was fifth in his Ford Mustang as he shares the third row with teammate Will Davison, while Red Bull Ampol Racing Team’s Broc Feeney starts behind with David Reynolds representing Penrite Racing for company.
Rounding out the top 10 were Nick Percat in the second Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore and Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus Motorsport’s Will Brown.
A couple of surprising names were knocked out in the opening segment of qualifying including Blanchard Racing Team’s Tim Slade. Joining the blue Mustang were the two Truck Assist Racing entries of Todd Hazelwood and Jack Le Brocq, James Golding, Chris Pither, Macauley Jones and Jack Smith.
Thomas Randle fell agonisingly short in the Castrol Tickford racing Mustang to be 11th from Mark Winterbottom, Brodie Kostecki, Andre Heimgartner, Scott Pye, James Courtney, this weekend’s second Wildcard Jordan Boys, Lee Holdsworth, Bryce Fullwood and Jake Kostecki.
The opening Repco Supercars race of the weekend begins at 4:45pm AEST (4:15pm local time).