Brown bags Sandown 500 pole position in Erebus lockout

Will Brown has qualified on pole position for the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 in an Erebus Motorsport front row lockout of the first enduro of the 2023 Supercars season.

Brown had finished second to team-mate Brodie Kostecki in provisional qualifying earlier in the day at Sandown but the Coca-Cola Camaros ended up in reverse order at the completion of the Top 10 Shootout.

Row 2 will feature a pair of Ford Mustangs after Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters jumped to third-quickest and the Shell V-Power Racing Team’s Will Davison took fourth, while Broc Feeney ended up fifth in his Red Bull Ampol Racing Camaro.

Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) had provisionally qualified eighth and was thus third onto the race track for the one-lap dash.

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On slightly roaded tyres, he set a 1:08.9781s which would not be beaten by the next six drivers.

Brown (#9 Camaro), however, wheeled his way to a 1:08.6693s which would be hard to beat by the only steerer to follow him, namely Kostecki.

The championship leader made his job even harder when he was slightly wide into Turn 3, ceding 0.17s relative to Car #9 in the first sector and not being able to get it back.

Kostecki’s 1:08.8555s was, however, better than any other lap of the session and hence either of he or David Russell will line up alongside Brown or Jack Perkins on the front row tomorrow.

Waters/James Moffat are set to start third and Will Davison/Alex Davison (#17 Mustang) fourth after the former set a 1:09.0011s in the Shootout.

Feeney went from a provisional third to fifth after a wide run out of Turn 1, before breaking the beam in a time of 1:09.0325s in the #88 Camaro which he is sharing with Jamie Whincup.

Sixth on the grid will be Todd Hazelwood/Tim Blanchard (#3 CoolDrive Mustang) thanks to the South Australian’s 1:09.0636s.

Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Mustang) was first out and gained a net three positions for he and Kevin Estre with a 1:09.1005s.

It will be both Penrite Racing entries on Row 4 given David Reynolds’ 1:09.1298s in the #26 Mustang being co-driven by 2022 Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander.

Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Mustang) was a provisional fourth and either of he or Garry Jacobson will start ninth after he locked a front at Turn 1 on his way to a 1:09.2708s.

Jack Le Brocq ended up 10th in the #34 Truck Assist Camaro which he is sharing with Jayden Ojeda after clocking a 1:09.4426s.

The Warm Up starts tomorrow at 10:10 local time/AEST.

CLICK HERE for full Sandown 500 starting grid