Golding claims maiden Supercars pole in Darwin

Nulon Racing’s James Golding backed up Friday’s qualifying performance in Saturday’s Top 10 Shootout to claim pole for this evening’s opening race of the Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway.

Golding was the last to run in the shootout and was tasked with overcoming Broc Feeney’s 1:06.3091 for the position. He did just that, setting a 1:06.2302 for his and his team’s maiden pole award.

Mark Winterbottom and Nick Percat qualified on the second row ahead of Anton De Pasquale and Will Brown. David Reynolds and Cam Waters make up the fourth row, while Tim Slade and Andre Heimgartner complete the top ten.

Heimgartner got proceedings underway, having provisionally qualified 10th, and set the benchmark at 1:06.7674, nearly seven-tenths off his best lap in Friday’s timed session.

Waters immediately bettered this on his run and gained a spot when Slade fell just 0.0002 seconds short of the Tickford driver’s time on his lap.

Reynolds then leapt to the top with a 1:06.6529, which was overcome by De Pasquale on the next run, despite the #11 running wide at Turn 1.

Brown also ran wide at Turn 1 and lost a place to the DJR Mustang to provisionally sit second with four drivers to run.

Feeney, who qualified fourth, then reset the benchmark at 1:06.3091, a time over two-tenths faster than those who had run despite admitting he had almost run off at Turn 1.

Winterbottom was unable to overcome the Red Bull’s time and dropped a spot to second. He immediately regained that position when Percat set a 1:06.4595, which was only good enough for third.

That left Golding to run, and the 28-year-old proved his qualifying performance was no fluke to take a career-first pole.

Today’s 48-lap race begins at 5.40 pm (NZST) and will be shown live on Sky Sport.

Darwin Triple Crown Race 1 Grid

Header Image: Nulon