The first Supercars session of the season produced what can only be considered a surprise result with a Blanchard Racing Team front row lockout for race 1, with two Kiwis finishing in the top 10.
Race 1 qualifying was run in an elimination format, with the first ten-minute session setting the grid from position 11 to position 24, and the top ten getting another ten-minute session to determine pole.
All drivers headed out almost immediately after the session started to set banker laps before a final push at the end. Kiwi Grove Racing driver Matt Payne was the first Kiwi to set a lap, with a 1.29.056.
Andre Heimgartner quickly eclipsed Payne’s time in the new GR Supra by setting a 1.28 595 to be the top Brad Jones Racing car in the session. Also in a GR Supra, Walkinshaw TWG Racing’s Ryan Wood set a 1.28.965 to sit twelfth, which left him a position behind champion team-mate Chaz Mostert in eleventh, and more importantly, left him sitting below the cut line to proceed to the next session.
After the first push laps had been done, Heimgartner sat second, Wood twelfth and Payne thirteenth.
A mid-session pit-lane frenzy then unfolded, with drivers quickly changing tyres and making setup adjustments before heading out for one final push. With thirty seconds to go, Heimgartner slightly improved to set a 1.28.515 to leave him fifth.
A 1.28.682 was not enough for Wood to disrupt the leaderboard as he finished the session in fifteenth place. The last driver to set a lap for the first session was Payne, and he made good use of track evolution to set a 1.28.108, enough to clinch him top spot for the first session, meaning he joined Heimgartner in the final session for pole.
In the final session, most drivers elected not to go out for an initial push lap and sat in the pit lane until the closing minutes.
Both kiwis elected to follow this strategy, not leaving the lane until there were three minutes left in the session. Heimgartner was the first Kiwi out on track, setting a 1.29.127 that provisionally put him in third.
Red Bull Ampol’s Broc Feeney quickly eclipsed this time, going into the low 1.28’s, which was quickly beaten by James Golding, who set a new lap record in Gen 3 with a 1.27.951.
Golding’s teammate, Aaron Cameron, quickly followed and proved that Blanchard Racing was a force to be reckoned with this weekend by being mere hundredths behind Golding by setting a 1.28.051. As in the first session, Payne was the last to set a session but could not replicate his heroics by setting a 1.28.217, which resulted in a promising third.
All eyes now move to Race 1, commencing at 9:50 pm tonight (20th February) NZST.
Starting grid: Race 1, 2026 DUNLOP Sydney 500
- James Golding (#7 CoolDrive Ford)
- Aaron Cameron (#3 LIQUI MOLY BLAHST Ford)
- Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Ford)
- Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Ford)
- Anton De Pasquale (#18 DEWALT Chevrolet)
- Zach Bates (#10 Bendix Chevrolet)
- Cam Waters (#6 Monster Energy Ford)
- Will Brown (#888 Red Bull Ampol Ford)
- Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Ford)
- Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Toyota)
- Brodie Kostecki (#17 Shell V-Power Ford)
- David Reynolds (#20 Snowy River Chevrolet)
- Jayden Ojeda (#31 PremiAir Chevrolet)
- Jackson Walls (#11 Objective Ford)
- Ryan Wood (#2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Toyota)
- Cooper Murray (#99 TotalEnergies Chevrolet)
- Kai Allen (#26 Penrite Ford)
- Rylan Gray (#38 Shell V-Power Ford)
- Cameron Hill (#Dare Iced Coffee Toyota)
- Chaz Mostert (#1 Mobil 1 Optus Toyota)
- Jack Le Brocq (#4 Sherrin Rentals Chevrolet)
- Jobe Stewart (#9 Chiko Chevrolet)
- Declan Fraser (#777 PremiAir Chevrolet)
- Macauley Jones (#96 AlphaTheta Toyota)
Header Image: Penrite Racing
