Walsh takes Dunlop pole after engine change

Ashley Walsh rewarded his hard working Matt Stone Racing crew with pole position for Round 3 of the Dunlop Series at Barbagallo.

The Ford outfit was forced to perform a hurried engine change prior to the session after discovering a problem during the motor’s warm-up procedure.

Once on track, Walsh proved unperturbed by the drama, clocking the fastest three times of the session on the way to his first Armor All Pole Award of the season.

Points leader Paul Dumbrell wound up second, 0.22s adrift of Walsh’s 57.12s best.

Cameron Waters and Dean Fiore will make-up the second row ahead of Chris Pither, Garry Jacobson, Andre Heimgartner, Jack Le Brocq, Todd Hazelwood and Paul Morris.

Morris had proved the fastest man in the bottom 50 percent segment of the two-part qualifying hit-out.

The first of two 38 lap races for the Dunlop Series this weekend will kick-off at 1325 local time.

See below for the Dunlop Series qualifying result

1	Infants Friend	Ashley Walsh	Ford Falcon FG	00:57.12
2	Eggleston Morotsport	Paul Dumbrell	Holden Commodore VE2	00:57.34	00:00.22
3	TEAM ENZED FPR	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG	00:57.43	00:00.31
4	Titan Ford/East Coast Traffic	Dean Fiore	Ford Falcon FG	00:57.47	00:00.35
5	Icebreak Racing	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore VE2	00:57.63	00:00.51
6	Eggleston Motorsport	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore VE2	00:57.68	00:00.56
7	Finance Ezi / MWM	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Falcon FG	00:57.71	00:00.59
8	Image Racing	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Falcon FG	00:57.71	00:00.59
9	Matt Stone Racing	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG	00:57.76	00:00.64
10	Sargent Security Racing	Paul Morris	Ford Falcon FG	00:57.81	00:00.70
11	Eggleston Motorsport	Ant Pedersen	Holden Commodore VE2	00:57.94	00:00.83
12	Haber Excavations/Miraflores	Morgan Haber	Ford Falcon FG	00:57.95	00:00.83
13	Team Freightliner	Andrew Jones	Holden Commodore VE2	00:58.01	00:00.89
14	Vili’s	Josh Kean	Holden Commodore VE2	00:58.16	00:01.05
15	Novocastrian Motorsport	Aaren Russell	Ford Falcon FG	00:58.21	00:01.09
16	R&J Batteries	Geoff Emery	Holden Commodore VE2	00:58.29	00:01.18
17	Action Racing	Marcus Zukanovic	Ford Falcon FG	00:58.38	00:01.26
18	Pacific Hoists/Race Pilot	Fredrik Lestrup	Holden Commodore VE2	00:58.51	00:01.39
19	Forpark/Aust Custom Moulders	Matt Hansen	Holden Commodore VE2	00:58.77	00:01.65
20	Formula Tech/Interquip Racing	Brett Stewart	Holden Commodore VE2	00:59.07	00:01.95
21	Rev Trans WA/Real Estate Expre	Ben Porter	Holden Commodore VE2	00:59.07	00:01.95
22	Street Fighter	Dan Day	Holden Commodore VE2	00:59.22	00:02.10
23	Mocomm Communication	Jim Pollicina	Ford Falcon FG	00:59.41	00:02.29
24	Gulf Western Oil	Michael Hector	Ford Falcon FG	00:59.47	00:02.35
25	Warrin Mining/Volvo Constructi	Adam Wallis	Holden Commodore VE2	00:59.47	00:02.35
26	McGill Motorsport	Aaron McGill	Holden Commodore VE2	00:59.62	00:02.50