Brown beats Kostecki as WAU battle again
Will Brown denied his former teammate Brodie Kostecki provisional pole in a tight qualifying where Cooper Murray soared and WAU struggled again.
Kostecki looked set to give Erebus Motorsport a special maiden P1 of the 2024 Supercars season by being the first into the 1m05s window.
However, former teammate Brown blitzed his final lap in the #87 Triple Eight Camaro to top the session with a 1:05.7066.
But all the focus was on the third Triple Eight Camaro with rookie Cooper Murray pushing the Supercheap Auto wildcard all the way up to fifth to secure a Top 10 Shootout berth.
Joining him in the one lap dash will be Tim Slade, Will Davison, James Golding, Jack Le Brocq, Broc Feeney, Cameron Hill and Anton De Pasqaule.
Once again Walkinshaw Andretti United could not find one lap speed with Chaz Mostert facing the prospect of another fightback drive from 20th on the grid.
Other big names joining him towards the back are Mark Winterbottom (18th) Cameron Waters (19th) and David Reynolds (21st).
Before the session Camaro runners Kostecki, Macauley Jones and Nick Percat all underwent engine changes.
De Pasquale was the fastest out of the blocks posting a 1:06.1718 to be 0.0186s clear of Winterbottom and Feeney.
But Brown’s second crack was marginally faster with the #87 eclipsing the DJR Mustang by 0.0199s.
Rookie Cooper Murray did a good job to be 10th, while the likes of Waters, Davison and Mostert sat outside the top 15 at the halfway mark.
Erebus Motorsport hit back brilliantly when the second runs started.
Kostecki returned to his best by being the first into the 1m5s window with three purple sectors to go 0.255s clear.
Following in his slipstream was Le Brocq, who also posted a strong lap to be a tenth off and establish an Erebus 1-2.
Wildcard Murray also raised eyebrows by surging to a brilliant fourth as the leading Triple Eight driver with a 1:06.1404, while Davison went purple on the first split to split the Erebus drivers.
Mostert pushed hard but could only get to 14th, while Heimgartner and Fullwood got into the 10.
With just three tenths splitting the top 13, everyone aside from Davison went for it at the death to make the cut.
Brown, who sat a safe sixth strung together three purple sectors to go to the top, but the action was amongst those trying to join him into the 10.
Payne, Golding, Slade and De Pasquale all made big gains to get to where they needed to be, but in the end the Penrite Racing driver was squeezed out by half a tenth and will be 11th.
The likes of Waters, Winterbottom and Mostert all pushed hard but could not even get into the top 15.
The Top 10 Shootout fires up at 11.35 ACST.
Darwin Triple Crown Race 12 Qualifying results
Darwin Triple Crown (ACST)
Friday, June 14
Practice 1: 1: W. Brown 1:06.4153 2: J. Golding +0.0156 3: J. Le Brocq +0.0518
Qualifying: 1: J. Golding 1:05.6912 2: N. Percat +0.0742 3: M. Winterbottom +0.1515
Saturday, June 15
Practice 2: 1: W. Brown 1:06.2120 2: B. Feeney +0.3002 3: C. Waters +0.4181
Top 10 Shootout: 1: J. Golding 1:06.2302 2: B. Feeney 1:06.3091 3: Mark Winterbottom 1:06.3621
Race 11: B. Feeney 2: M. Winterbottom +8.6763 3: W. Brown +10.6426
Sunday, June 16
10.25 Qualifying
11.35 Top 10 Shootout
15.10 Race 12 (48 laps)
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