Payne scores Carrera Cup pole at The Bend

Matthew Payne will start the opening Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia race at The Bend Motorsport Park from pole position after a stunning qualifying effort in the wet.

The talented Kiwi mastered the tricky conditions to post a 2:01.5602 – putting him more than half a second clear at the front.

His nearest rival was Cooper Murray, while points leader Cameron Hill and David Russell will share the second row of the grid.

Further back, Luke Youlden and practice pace-setter Dale Wood will start from the fifth row, while Craig Lowndes qualified down in 18th.

Payne admitted the session went better than even he could have anticipated.

“The ‘New Zealand ‘conditions in qualifying I wouldn’t say favoured me but we were definitely better than we expected,” said the Earl Bamber Motorsport driver.

“I went straight out for the first couple of laps and the car felt really good and I kept improving as the track was getting drier, but it definitely got a bit more greasy toward the end.”

Geoff Emery meanwhile was quickest in the Pro-Am class, in 16th outright.

“The track was a bit tricky heading out on the green wets but I had never done a lap around here in the rain, so it was a matter of building on it every lap and I knew Sam (Shahin) would be pretty quick around here and he was,” said Emery.

“I just needed to keeping pushing on and that paid off in the end.”

Race 1 for Carrera Cup this weekend, comprising 11 laps, will start at 14:50 local time (15:20 AEST).

Qualifying: Carrera Cup Australia, The Bend

Pos	Car	Driver	Class	Fastest Lap	Gap
1	21	Matthew Payne (NZ)	Mobil Pro / Michelin Junior	2:01.5602
2	36	Cooper Murray (VIC)	Mobil Pro / Michelin Junior	2:02.1353	0:00.5751
3	111	Cameron Hill (ACT)	Mobil Pro	2:02.2864	0:00.7262
4	23	David Russell (QLD)	Mobil Pro	2:02.3530	0:00.7928
5	77	Michael Almond (SA)	Mobil Pro	2:02.8212	0:01.2610
6	38	David Wall (NSW)	Mobil Pro	2:02.9818	0:01.4216
7	78	Aaron Love (WA)	Mobil Pro / Michelin Junior	2:02.9868	0:01.4266
8	12	Harri Jones (QLD)	Mobil Pro / Michelin Junior	2:03.0209	0:01.4607
9	28	Luke Youlden (QLD)	Mobil Pro	2:03.0321	0:01.4719
10	100	Dale Wood (VIC)	Mobil Pro	2:03.1174	0:01.5572
11	11	Jackson Walls (NSW)	Mobil Pro / Michelin Junior	2:03.3964	0:01.8362
12	72	Max Vidau (SA)	Mobil Pro / Michelin Junior	2:03.4026	0:01.8424
13	76	Christian Pancione (VIC)	Mobil Pro / Michelin Junior	2:03.7520	0:02.1918
14	8	Nick McBride (VIC)	Mobil Pro	2:03.7961	0:02.2359
15	777	Simon Fallon (VIC)	Mobil Pro / Michelin Junior	2:04.8379	0:03.2777
16	48	Geoff Emery (VIC)	Morris Finance Pro Am	2:05.1030	0:03.5428
17	13	Sam Shahin (SA)	Morris Finance Pro Am	2:05.2182	0:03.6580
18	338	Craig Lowndes (QLD)	Mobil Pro	2:05.2673	0:03.7071
19	74	Ben Stack (VIC)	Morris Finance Pro Am	2:05.7005	0:04.1403
20	22	Dean Cook (VIC)	Morris Finance Pro Am	2:06.1190	0:04.5588
21	7	Tim Miles (NSW)	Morris Finance Pro Am	2:06.6777	0:05.1175
22	222	Scott Taylor (QLD)	Morris Finance Pro Am	2:07.1526	0:05.5924
23	20	Adrian Flack (QLD)	Morris Finance Pro Am	2:07.1644	0:05.6042
24	35	Indiran Padayachee (NSW)	Morris Finance Pro Am	2:07.4042	0:05.8440
25	86	Drew Hall (QLD)	Morris Finance Pro Am	2:08.0578	0:06.4976
26	9	Marc Cini (VIC)	Morris Finance Pro Am	2:11.8423	0:10.2821