Jim Beam Racing’s James Courtney will start from pole position for Race 11 of the V8 Supercars Championship Series at Winton Motor Raceway after a blistering qualifying session.
Courtney scored the Armor All pole with a 1:21.8739s – the first man to dip into the 1:21s mark in a V8 at Winton (helped by the soft Sprint tyres in use this weekend).
Orrcon Steel FPR’s Mark Winterbottom was the first to reset the lap record before Garth Tander (Toll HRT) beat that mark by over 0.1s. Tander will line up second, with Winterbottom third. ‘Frosty’ was the biggest gainer in the session, elevating from eighth place in provisional qualifying.
Winterbottom’s team-mate Steven Richards (Dunlop Super Dealers FPR) has his best qualifying for the year with fourth place ahead of Craig Lowndes (TeamVodafone), who jumped from ninth to fifth place.
Championship leader Jamie Whincup (TeamVodafone) will start sixth after a mistake at turn 10 cost him.
Will Davison (Toll HRT), Steven Johnson (Jim Beam Racing), Todd Kelly (Jack Daniel’s Racing) and Michael Caruso (Fujitsu Racing) round out the top 10.
Race 11 of the V8 Supercars Championship Series starts at 3.35pm.
| 1. | #18 | James Courtney | 1:21.8739 |
| 2. | #2 | Garth Tander | 1:22.0056 |
| 3. | #5 | Mark Winterbottom | 1:22.1313 |
| 4. | #6 | Steven Richards | 1:22.2085 |
| 5. | #888 | Craig Lowndes | 1:22.4243 |
| 6. | #1 | Jamie Whincup | 1:22.4805 |
| 7. | #22 | Will Davison | 1:22.5360 |
| 8. | #17 | Steven Johnson | 1:22.5403 |
| 9. | #7 | Todd Kelly | 1:22.5506 |
| 10. | #34 | Michael Caruso | 1:22.6283 |
