Newcastle Supercars: Van Gisbergen turns 10th into pole
Shane van Gisbergen used a stunning Shootout lap to turn 10th in regular qualifying into pole for this afternoon's opening race in Newcastle.
Having only just scraped into the single-lap dash, van Gisbergen went four-tenths faster than his qualifying effort to leave the rest of the Top 10 chasing a 1m10.174s.
It proved to be an unbeatable benchmark, van Gisbergen becoming the first driver to run first in a Shootout and take pole since Garth Tander at Symmons Plains back in 2009.
"The car has been awesome all weekend, just no good on new tyres," said van Gisbergen.
"I was just stoked with that, they did a great job tuning it, getting the tyre fazing better and I just can't believe we went from 10th there to the front. It's critical here."
Van Gisbergen wasn't the only big mover in the Shootout. Having been just eighth quickest in qualifying, Scott McLaughlin secured a front-row start thanks to a 1m10.237s.
“I just stuffed up Turn 11, I just over-slowed it," he said. "But overall our car is so much better [than in qualifying]."
Provisional polesitter Jamie Whincup slipped back to third, the Red Bull Holden driver set to share the second row with Tickford's Cam Waters.
Anton De Pasquale dropped three places with fifth on the grid, followed by Fabian Coulthard and David Reynolds, the latter making up three spots.
James Courtney will start eighth, a lock-up into Turn 11 costly on his lap, with Tim Slade in ninth.
Lee Holdsworth dumped five spots compared to qualifying, a gamble on roaded tyres not paying off for the recently re-signed Tickford ace.
| Cla | # | Driver | Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 97 |  Shane van Gisbergen | 1'10.174 | ||
| 2 | 17 | Scott McLaughlin | 1'10.237 | 0.062 | 0.062 |
| 3 | 88 |  Jamie Whincup | 1'10.281 | 0.107 | 0.044 |
| 4 | 6 | Cameron Waters | 1'10.329 | 0.154 | 0.047 |
| 5 | 99 | Anton De Pasquale | 1'10.368 | 0.194 | 0.039 |
| 6 | 12 | Fabian Coulthard | 1'10.459 | 0.284 | 0.090 |
| 7 | 9 | David Reynolds | 1'10.548 | 0.373 | 0.088 |
| 8 | 22 | James Courtney | 1'10.555 | 0.380 | 0.007 |
| 9 | 14 | Tim Slade | 1'10.782 | 0.607 | 0.226 |
| 10 | 5 | Lee Holdsworth | 1'10.804 | 0.629 | 0.022 |
| View full results | |||||
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