BATHURST 2012: Whincup quickest in qualifying

Qualifying king Jamie Whincup set the quickest time in qualifying for the Bathurst 1000 with a 2:07.7145sec lap late in the session, and will start last in Saturday’s top 10 shootout to decide pole position for The Great Race on Sunday.

The session was held in hot sunny weather, which probably prevented any driver getting near Craig Lowndes’ 2010 lap record of 2:06.8012, something that seemed likely based on times set at practice on Thursday.

For much of the session Will Davison held the top spot on the timing sheets before being usurped by Lowndes but in a final exciting burst of action Fabian Coulthard (2:07.7931) Mark Winterbottom (2:07.9231) and Davison (2:07.9296) bettered Lowndes’ 2:07.9663.

These five were the only drivers in the ‘sevens’ and 17 drivers were within one second of the pole time.

Garth Tander had an uncharacteristically horrible session, understeering wide into the tyre barrier at turn two and burying the nose of his Holden Racing Team Commodore on his first flying lap. He was able to extricate his battered car and get back to the pits for a hasty tyre change and lashings of red gaffer tape to ‘neaten’ up the aerodynamics of the car.

A few laps later, with even more red tape on his car, Tander wasn’t able to turn in at Hell Corner and rather than spin, went down the escape road to do a ‘flick’ turn. He ended up eighth quickest and in the shootout with a 2:08.1045sec lap, still quicker than teammate James Courtney (2:08.4692) in 14th.

James Moffat (17th, 2:06.5849) had a scare going over Skyline and had to take to the kitty litter to avoid disaster then had another off at The Chase, again taking to the gravel trap, while his famous father Allan watched impassively from the pits.

Other drivers to qualify for the shootout are Shane Van Gisbergen (sixth, 2:08.7099), Tim Slade (seventh 2:08.0912), Steve Owen (ninth, 2:08.1386) and David Reynolds (tenth, 2:08.2312)

At the other end of the time sheets and the other end of the pits, literally, was the Shannons/carsales.com.au Commodore of V8 Supercar Showdown youngsters Cam Waters (2011 winner) and Jesse Dixon, this year’s competition winner.

With more experience under his youthful belt, Waters was chosen to qualify the car and he worked down to a best time of 2:10.4865, despite a “fluffy” engine exiting corners. Waters was happy with his time but felt he could have gone quicker.

“The engine was a little bit fluffy when I initially cracked the throttle [open], which hurt us a bit off the corners but it wouldn’t have been massive [amount]. It’s still good and the car’s in one piece,” Waters said. “I could have gone quicker, but I didn’t get a clean lap.”

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