There are few more enjoyable experiences in the life of a racing driver than having Mount Panorama to yourself on a Saturday afternoon.
A fortunate 10 will relish that experience later today, when the Bathurst 1000 build-up peaks with the pole shootout.
But for all the bliss that comes with an uninterrupted run around the mountain, this will be no weekend drive. There’s time to savour the ascent up Mount Panorama or soak in the view at the summit.
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The prestige of making the top 10 at Bathurst is surpassed only by taking pole position, making this the most high-pressure lap of the season for these 10 drivers.
Rather than bliss, this will be two minutes of pure nerves — whether steeled or jangling — in pursuit of the honour of leading the grid off the line for 1000 kilometres of Bathurst on Sunday afternoon.
As has been the case all weekend, the session starts with a question: can anyone beat Brodie Kostecki?
The form man of the series has the benefit of being last on track, thank to his qualifying-topping performance on Friday. In theory he’ll get the circuit at its peak condition as well as the benefit of knowing the time he’ll have to beat.
All he has to do is steel those nerves and try to enjoy his moment alone at the mountain.
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POLE SHOOTOUT CONTENDERS
1. Brodie Kostecki (Erebus): 2:04.664
2. James Golding (PremiAir): 2:04.813
3. Anton de Pasquale (Dick Johnson Racing): 2:04.967
4. Cameron Waters (Tickford): 2:04.991
5. Broc Feeney (Triple Eight): 2:05.052
6. David Reynolds (Grove): 2:05.083
7. Shane van Gisbergen (Triple Eight): 2:05.182
8. Matthew Payne (Grove): 2:05.209
9. Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United): 2:05.218
10. Will Davison (Dick Johnson Racing): 2:05.285
The shootout runs in reverse order, with Will Davison first on track and Brodie Kostecki last.
TRICKY CONDITIONS CONFOUNDING DRIVERS AHEAD OF QUALIFYING
Conditions for this year’s pole shootout couldn’t be more different to last year’s total washout, but the bright, sunny weather is causing its own problems for the grid’s 10 pole hopefuls.
While the ambient temperature has peaked at 19 degrees Celsius, a day of direct sunlight has ensured the track is much hotter.
The wind chill of the last two days has also largely dissipated, ensuring the track is remaining hot throughout.
Despite the series using the soft-compound tyre at Bathurst this year, the net result is still less grip than expected, with the lower downforce Gen3 cars also robbing drivers of expected traction.
“Worst conditions possible — obviously quite warm and in the middle of the day,” Cam Waters said.
“[I was surprised] how greasy it was and how slow the track was. I felt slow out there anyway.”
Waters, who will be seventh in the pole shootout later today, said teams were still experimenting with set-up while trying to forecast track conditions, acknowledging that Sunday is likely to be warmer still.
“We’re trying some stuff as well at the same time, trying to learn as much as we can and make sure we’ve got a fast car for tomorrow,” he said. “We’ve learnt a fair bit I think.”
“I’m somewhat [happy]. I think our one-lap pace isn’t too bad. My sim then wasn’t too bad on a fresh set of tyres. I did a race run — that was the first time I’ve done a race run; [co-driver James Moffat] has been doing them all — and it was okay.
Grove’s Matt Payne, who will run third in the shootout, said he was surprised how much slower the track was compared to yesterday’s qualifying, when he put his car eighth fastest.
“The track was pretty hot, I think, so the times were a little bit slower,” he said. “It’s a little bit more difficult out there today than it was yesterday.
“Yesterday our quali car was not too bad, there were good times produced, but today it’s hotter. There’s probably less cloud cover than there was, so maybe set-ups will change a little bit.”
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DAVISON LACKING CONFIDENCE AHEAD OF SHOOTOUT
Will Davison is first up in this evening’s impending pole shootout, but the Dick Johnson Racing driver is lacking confidence in his Mustang.
Davison, who co-drives with brother Alex, has been dealing with brake problems since arriving at Mount Panorama on Thursday, and the team has been unable to cure them over six hours of practice.
“We‘ve been chasing an issue all weekend,” he said. “It’s very frustrating
“I can‘t drive other people’s cars, so I don’t know what everyone else is experiencing, but I haven’t experienced anything like this before.
“We’re still chasing it. It’s pretty sketchy.”
Davison scraped into the shootout by just 0.095 seconds on Friday night but said inconsistent braking behaviour would make the battle for pole a struggle.
“The bite from the front of the brakes seems to be changing significantly and then the rear brake balance changes a lot … like someone’s ripping the handbrake on,” he explained.
“I got hugely inconsistent braking in the car.”
FEENEY ON TOP IN FINAL PRACTICE AHEAD OF POLE SHOOTOUT
Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup have topped final practice for the Bathurst 1000 ahead of the all-important pole shootout.
Feeney, who is sixth in the shootout order, used his fifth lap of the session to set a best time of 2 minutes 5.587 seconds, deciding to undertake his shootout simulation at the start of the hour rather than the end.
It was fast enough to beat provisional poleman Brodie Kostecki by 0.242 seconds, though Kostecki set his best time straight out of the box with his first timed lap of the session, underlining his confidence just hours out from the shootout.
His Erebus teammate, Will Brown, backed him up in third at 0.219 seconds further adrift. More important was that he appeared not to be suffering any of the steering issues that afflicted him during the morning session, the problems stemming from his heavy qualifying crash on Friday.
Declan Fraser and Tyler Everingham, who suffered similar problems earlier today, also enjoyed a smooth hour of running with a new steering rack. The pair completed a session-high 25 laps on the way to 25th in the order, their focus exclusively on race pace.
The same couldn’t be said for Cameron Hill, however, who carries concerns over a clutch niggle into tomorrow’s race, though he and co-driver Jaylyn Robotham finished eighth in the hour.
Only tomorrow’s 20-minute warm-up session remains for last-minute troubleshooting ahead of the 1000-kilometre race.
Davison brothers Will and Alex are also still struggling with weekend-long brake issues heading into the shootout, for which car 17 will be first on track at 5:05pm.
But the race was the principal focus of the weekend’s final practice session, with team’s taking the opportunity of the all-driver session to undertake some final pit stop practice, with driver swaps, fuel fills and brake changes coming in for particular attention.
Several teams have suffered finger trouble swapping brake callipers on the Gen3 car so far this weekend, but Grove took those struggles to a new level with a stuck front-right rotor on Dave Reynolds and Garth Tander’s Mustang.
Mechanics tried wrenching and hitting off the disc, but to no avail, and the team was forced to wheel the Ford back into the garage for further work to free the caught caliper.
It took another five minutes of work before car 26 was able to resume the session.
“If that happens tomorrow, our day is not done, but we’ll probably go down a lap or two trying to fix it,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds will be fifth on the road in the shootout later today.
Practice 6 results
1. Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup (Triple Eight): 2:05.587
2. Brodie Kostecki/David Russell (Erebus): +0.241
3. Will Brown/Jack Perkins (Erebus): +0.460
4. Cam Waters/James Moffat (Tickford): +0.653
5. Shane van Gisbergen/Richie Stanaway (Triple Eight): +0.685
6. Anton de Pasquale/Tony D’Alberto (Dick Johnson Racing): +0.700
7. James Golding/Dylan O’Keeffe (PremiAir): +0.707
8. Andre Heimgartner/Dale Wood (Brad Jones Racing): +0.931
9. Scott Pye/Warren Luff (Team 18): +1.048
10. Matt Payne/Kévin Estre (Grove): +1.068
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VAN GISBERGEN FOCUSED ON RACE OVER QUALI AHEAD OF SHOOTOUT
Shane van Gisbergen says he’ll have a crack at pole this afternoon but is setting up his car for better race performance rather than single-lap pace.
Van Gisbergen only just made the shootout during qualifying on Friday night, needing a final lap after the chequered flag to make the cut by a slender 0.198 seconds — though he admitted he didn’t have the inherent pace to have made it at all.
“Thanks to James Courtney,” he said. “I just got a tow off him.
“We really didn’t have the pace, but he just pulled me along, which was good, so we snuck in.”
But SVG said he wasn’t too concerned about qualifying pace, with speed in the race his biggest focus given the difficult switch to the soft tyre this season, which will shake up strategy and make race management more difficult over 1000 kilometres.
“We kind of prioritised the race car, which made us not very good in qualifying,” he said.
“I’m not focused on that. We’re focussed on the race car. With the soft tyre here the deg is so bad.
“We’ll focus more on the race car. But we’ll have a go [in qualifying].
“We’re up there, but we’ll see.”
Co-driver Richie Stanaway said the team made “a pretty big change” to the car overnight, which pushed the younger Kiwi into top spot for morning practice.
The team isn’t sure whether the change will be retained for the race, with Van Gisbergen set to cast his judgement in final practice at 1:00pm.
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STANAWAY SETS PACE IN FINAL CO-DRIVER PRACTICE
Richie Stanaway has set the pace in the final practice session at the Bathurst 1000 in a promising sign for his and co-driver Shane van Gisbergen’s victory hopes.
Van Gisbergen spent most of Friday qualifying at risk of missing out on the top 10, the reigning Bathurst winner uncomfortable with the set-up of the car and struggling to string together a clean lap throughout the session.
The two-time champion nabbed seventh with a last-gasp lap set after the chequered flag, but he admitted it was thanks in part to a slipstream down Conrod that boosted his straight-line speed beyond 300 kilometres per hour, getting him inside the 10 by just 0.198 seconds.
Stanaway allayed some of those fears by putting his Triple Eight Camaro into top spot in the final co-driver-only practice session of the weekend.
“We made a pretty big change to the car overnight so just wanted to validate that this morning,” Stanaway said. “I’m really happy with it.
“We’re not quite sure if we’re going to lock it in for the race yet. Shane will give it a crack later on today and we’ll see how we go.”
Though his time of 2 minutes 6.049 seconds wasn’t electrifying in the context of the weekend to date, it was almost half a second faster than anyone else in the session.
Garth Tander was next best for Grove, putting his and David Reynolds’s Mustang 0.462 seconds off the pace.
Zane Goddard made it two Triple Eight cars in the top three, placing Craig Lowndes’s Camaro just 0.047 seconds further back.
Provisional pole-getter Brodie Kostecki’s co-driver, David Russell, was fourth and 0.721 seconds off the pace.
The session was focused on race pace, with co-drivers almost invariably selected to start the race on Sunday for strategic reasons, allowing the lead drivers to a long run to the chequered flag by the end of the evening.
It was also a crucial session to develop a deeper understanding of the soft tyre, which is being used for the first time at Bathurst this weekend.
Teams have struggled to keep their cars in the right set-up window to get the best from the tyre all weekend, in part because the circuit grip level is rapidly evolving session from session.
Forecasting grip levels for both the shootout later today and for the duration of tomorrow’s race could prove decisive.
Most teams racked up healthy mileage of at least 15 laps per car. One notable exception, however, was Jack Perkins, co-driver for Will Brown, who discovered steering problems aboard car 9.
Brown had crashed the Camaro during qualifying and identified problems with the splitter that prevented him from cracking the top 10.
Suspected power steering problems today curtailed Perkins’s session to just 10 laps for repairs, leaving him 26th in the order.
Similar problems were found in Tyler Everingham’s Mustang, which was repaired overnight following Declan Fraser’s heavy crash at Reid Park yesterday evening.
Everingham completed just seven laps and ended the hour 24th.
Practice 5 results
1. Richie Stanaway (Triple Eight): 2:06.049
2. Garth Tander (Grove): 2:06.511
3. Zan Goddard (Triple Eight): 2:06.558
4. David Russell (Erebus): 2:06.660
5. Jayden Ojeda (Matt Stone Racing): 2:06.770
6. Jaylyn Robotham (Matt Stone Racing): 2:06.886
7. Tony D’Alberto (Dick Johnson Racing): 2:06.912
8. Jake Kostecki (Blanchard Racing Team): 2:06.933
9. Jamie Whincup (Triple Eight): 2:06.949
10. Jonathon Webb (PremiAir): 2:07.221
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QUALIFYING RESULTS (SATURDAY)
The following drivers will not take part in the pole shootout and will start the race in their qualifying positions
11. Thomas Randle/Garry Jacobson (Tickford): 2:05.380
12. Scott Pye/Warren Luff (Team 18): 2:05.442
13. Andre Heimgartner/Dale Wood (Brad Jones Racing): 2:05.470
14. Cameron Hill/Jaylyn Robotham (Matt Stone Racing): 2:05.490
15. Jack Le Brocq/Jayden Ojeda (Matt Stone Racing): 2:05.507
16. James Courtney/Zak Best (Tickford): 2:05.511
17. Will Brown/Jack Perkins (Erebus): 2:05.558
18. Tim Slade/Jonathon Webb (PremiAir): 2:05.584
19. Mark Winterbottom/Michael Caruso (Team 18): 2:05.800
20. Zane Goddard/Craig Lowndes (Triple Eight): 2:05.851
21. Bryce Fullwood/Dean Fiore (Brad Jones Racing): 2:05.941
22. Todd Hazelwood/Tim Blanchard (Blanchard Racing Team): 2:05.955
23. Nick Percat/Fabian Coulthard (Walkinshaw Andretti United): 2:06.020
24. Macauley Jones/Jordan Boys (Brad Jones Racing): 2:06.217
25. Kai Allen/Simona de Silvestro (Dick Johnson Racing): 2:06.242
26. Aaron Love/Jack Kostecki (Blanchard Racing Team): 2:06.531
27. Jack Smith/Jaxon Evans (Brad Jones Racing): 2:07.171
28. Declan Fraser/Tyler Everingham (Tickford): no time
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SATURDAY SCHEDULE
Coverage starts at 8:15am on Kayo and Fox Sport
Practice 5 (co-drivers): 10:00am to 11:00am
Practice 6 (all drivers): 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Top-10 shootout: 5:05pm to 5:50pm
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