Youlden snaps 17-year Carrera Cup pole drought

Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia veteran Luke Youlden has stormed to pole position for the opening leg of the NTI Townsville 500.

It marks the 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner’s first Carrera Cup pole in 17 years, since the 2005 Oran Park event.

In a split session whereby Pro-Am competitors sorted themselves out before the Pro field got stuck into qualifying, Youlden dominated proceedings.

The 44-year-old was on top heading into crunch time, before series returnee Aaron Love went fastest with a 1:13.0775s set inside the final three minutes.

Simon Fallon then split Love and Youlden to go second, before the latter banged in a 1:13.0612s to reclaim top spot.

Dylan O’Keeffe capitalised on the rapid track evolution to slot in third, as eyes darted towards the struggles of championship leader Harri Jones.

Jones was just 15th in the 19-strong Pro field when the chequered flag dropped, and fell to third-last, before improving – albeit only to 10th.

Youlden meanwhile was going faster again, improving to a stunning 1:12.9801s on his final effort.

That time saw almost six tenths shaved off the practice/qualifying lap record that had been set yesterday by David Wall.

Geoff Emery was fastest in the Pro-Am class.

Race 1 for Carrera Cup will comprise 17 laps, starting from 12:45 AEST today.

Results: Qualifying

Pos	Car	Driver	Class	Fastest Lap	Gap
1	53	Luke Youlden	Pro	1:12.9801
2	999	Aaron Love	Pro	1:13.0775	0:00.0974
3	88	Dylan O’Keeffe	Pro	1:13.1526	0:00.1725
4	5	Ryan Suhle	Pro / Michelin Junior	1:13.2160	0:00.2359
5	777	Simon Fallon	Pro / Michelin Junior	1:13.2299	0:00.2498
6	100	Dale Wood	Pro	1:13.2328	0:00.2527
7	38	David Wall	Pro	1:13.2631	0:00.2830
8	45	Duvashen Padayachee	Pro	1:13.2695	0:00.2894
9	11	Jackson Walls	Pro / Michelin Junior	1:13.2772	0:00.2971
10	12	Harri Jones	Pro / Michelin Junior	1:13.2789	0:00.2988
11	17	Callum Hedge	Pro / Michelin Junior	1:13.3794	0:00.3993
12	25	Michael Almond	Pro	1:13.4143	0:00.4342
13	74	David Russell	Pro	1:13.4167	0:00.4366
14	28	Bayley Hall	Pro / Michelin Junior	1:13.5983	0:00.6182
15	6	Angelo Mouzouris	Pro / Michelin Junior	1:13.6421	0:00.6620
16	333	Brad Shiels	Pro	1:13.7084	0:00.7283
17	8	Nick McBride	Pro	1:13.7830	0:00.8029
18	72	Max Vidau	Pro / Michelin Junior	1:13.8153	0:00.8352
19	76	Christian Pancione	Pro / Michelin Junior	1:14.0139	0:01.0338
1	48	Geoff Emery	Morris Pro-Am	1:13.9383*
2	27	Liam Talbot	Morris Pro-Am	1:14.1548	0:00.2165
3	13	Sam Shahin	Morris Pro-Am	1:14.2938	0:00.3555
4	7	Tim Miles	Morris Pro-Am	1:14.4584	0:00.5201
5	20	Adrian Flack	Morris Pro-Am	1:14.5538	0:00.6155
6	22	Dean Cook	Morris Pro-Am	1:14.8959	0:00.9576
7	77	Rodney Jane	Morris Pro-Am	1:14.9407	0:01.0024
8	4	Stephen Grove	Morris Pro-Am	1:14.9731	0:01.0348
9	14	Matthew Belford	Morris Pro-Am	1:15.0546	0:01.1163
10	86	Drew Hall	Morris Pro-Am	1:15.7354	0:01.7971
11	9	Marc Cini	Morris Pro-Am	1:15.9922	0:02.0539
12	222	Scott Taylor	Morris Pro-Am	1:16.3993	0:02.4610
13	101	Tony Quinn	Morris Pro-Am	1:16.6415	0:02.7032