Feeney fronts Triple Eight one-two in qualifying

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 24 February 2024

Triple Eight Race Engineering has continued its impressive speed with Broc Feeney leading Will Brown to dominate the opening qualifying session of the year.

Feeney was the only driver with a 2m05s time and took provisional pole by recording a 2:05.9872.

It was 0.2983s clear of teammate Brown, while David Reynolds impressed on Team 18 debut in third.

Chaz Mostert was the fastest Ford in fourth while Todd Hazelwood, Anton De Pasquale, James Golding, Ryan Wood, Cameron Hill and Richie Stanaway are the others who secured berths in the Top 10 Shootout.

Matt Payne was the only driver to find trouble, going off at Murrays and will start 14th, while it was a tough session for Tickford with Thomas Randle and Cam Waters starting 16th and 20th respectively.

“It is a great start to be here but the shootout is to come,” Feeney said.

“It was super different to yesterday and there were some of the hardest conditions with the wind and the first at the top of the hill.

“We still have to make a few more tweaks before the Shootout.”

The entire field took on Mount Panorama at the earliest opportunity when the first 20 minute qualifying session commenced under overcast skies with the aim of the game to get ia Top 10 Shootout berth.

Triple Eight stamped its authority straight away with Brown leading Feeney after drivers completed their first flying laps.

Brown’s 2:06.4426 was 0.19s faster than Feeney, who had the best part of two tenths buffer over Golding and Hazelwood.

Matt Payne was initially the fastest Ford holding fifth, while the likes of De Pasquale, Davison, Percat, Hill and Courtney bided their time.

Feeney fired back on his second attempt going three tenths faster than Brown lowering the bar to a 2:06.1079.

Wood also impressed on his second lap taking third briefly before being beaten by Reynolds but they were still more than half a second away from the top.

Running later was Hill, who impressed to put the MSR #4 Camaro up to third, just four tenths off and sneaking ahead of Stanaway and Reynolds.

As happy hour approached, De Pasquale sat on the bubble in 10th with the likes of Hazelwood, Waters, Mostert, Slade and Heimgartner on the outer and Davison last being the only one yet to do a push lap.

All 24 cars were on track at the death in an attempt to secure a shootout berth and Mostert made the first move rising from 13th to second, while De Pasquale and Hazelwood made similar leaps.

Despite Hazelwood breaking Triple Eight’s one-two, Brown hit back to resume the status quo by going two tenths faster than the #99.

The shuffling left Percat on the bubble when the chequered flag was waved and he was knocked out when Reynolds and Wood nailed their laps.

Reynolds went purple in the first sector to push the #20 Team 18 Camaro into third ahead of Mostert.

Payne was 14th and pushed too hard to get into the 10 and went off at Murrays and got trapped in the gravel.

Despite the Kiwi’s off, the session stayed green albeit with a local yellow and number of drivers still improved as his Penrite Racing teammate held onto the important 10th, being just half a tenth faster than Percat and Le Brocq.

The fight for pole will step up when the first Top 10 Shootout of the year takes place at 13.05 AEDT.

Image: Peter Norton EPIC Sports Photography

Bathurst 500 race 1 qualifying results

2024 Bathurst 500 Supercars schedule

Friday, February 23

Practice 1: 1: B. Feeney 2: N. Percat 3: W. Brown

Practice 2: 1: W. Brown 2: T. Hazelwood 3: B. Feeney

Saturday, February 24

Qualifying: 10.20

Top 10 Shootout: 13.05

Race 1 (40 laps): 16.10

Sunday, February 25

Qualifying: 09.30

Top 10 Shootout: 12.05

Race 2 (40 laps): 15.05

There is also lots more loaded into a bumper edition of AUTO ACTION magazine, on sale at newsagents Thursday and available digitally here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.

Latest Podcast: Gentlemen Start your Engines – It’s Supercar Season on the Auto Action RevLimiter!

This is it folks, there’s no more posturing and no more of the who did what to whom talk, this weekend Supercars gets to fight fair in the opening round of the season at the Bathurst 500. Who can win, who will win, we dissect the season and tell you what we think on the latest podcast.

Listen to our latest episode on your podcast app of choice or here

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