After dominating the qualifying rounds of the 60th Bathurst 1000 at Mt Panorama, Brodie Kostecki put in a scintillating 2:04.271 lap to win the top 10 shootout and claim the pole for Sunday’s race.
The event can be seen live on SPEED SPORT 1 at 11:15 p.m. ET Saturday night.
Driving the Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus Chev Camaro, Kostecki navigated the 3.86-mile track half a second faster than Broc Feeney in the Red Bull Chev Camaro.
Third fastest was Cameron Waters in the Monster Energy Ford Mustang.
Rounding out the top 10 on the grid will be James Golding (Nulon Racing Chev Camaro), Anton de Pasquale (Shell V-Power Ford Mustang), Shane van Gisbergen (Red Bull Ampol Chev Camaro), David Reynolds (Penrite Racing Ford Mustang), Matthew Payne (Penrite Racing Ford Mustang), Chaz Mostert (Mobil1 Optus Ford Mustang) and Will Davidson (Shell V-Power Ford Mustang).
A full field of 28 cars is scheduled to start the race on Sunday.
The presence of six Mustangs in the top 10 is a welcome outcome for Ford, having had challenges being competitive with the Camaros in the Supercars series.
The Ford Mustang teams were asking for technical parity changes in the lead-up to the race, but this was rejected by Supercars. The Ford teams were still discussing the issue after the shootout, concerned that the results of the shootout did not reflect the race-long situation between the two makes.
The Mt. Panorama circuit was originally constructed as a scenic drive up and down the mountain in 1938 and is still used as a public road most of the year.
The challenge for the leading drivers will be to convert their fast lap dash times into a consistent performance over the grueling 161 laps of the challenging track.
Having just managed to quality for the top 10 shootout, Shane van Gisbergen remained focused on the 600-mile event rather than the shoot-out.
The New Zealand driver, who was victorious in 2016 and 2018, said he was concentrating on the set-up that will allow him to be still running strongly in the back end of the marathon event.
The last polesitter to win the race was Chas Mostert in 2021. The Mustang driver also holds the lap record at 2.03.3732, set in the Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden ZB Commodore in 2021.
Only 55 points separate Kostecki and van Gisbergen in the Supercars championship series.
The Western Australian driver sits on 2,171 points, ahead of van Gisbergen (2016 points) and Broc Feeney (1967 points).
Unlike the other rounds of the series, the Bathurst 1000 requires two drivers to share the 161 laps.