Shepherd takes Pukekohe pole by next to nothing

An atypical Toyota 86 Friday qualifying ended with some expected results, defending champion Rowan Shepherd earning pole position.

The late afternoon qualifying around the Pukekohe Park circuit proved to be one of the closest sessions of recent memory.

Shepherd eclipsed provisional polesitter Justin Allen by a measly 0.012s midway through the 20-minute dash.

Neither driver would improve beyond that. They start tomorrow’s first race from the front row.

“We made a few changes before qualifying and we were pretty nervous before the start of the session,” Shepherd said.

“I definitely was full on for most of the lap and almost lost it twice at turn four, so I’m relieved to get pole position and very pleased given how close the field is.”

Marco Giltrap pulled off a mighty effort to qualify third, pipping his veteran teammate and mentor Simon Evans.

Evans enters the weekend with an 18-point championship lead over Shepherd.

Brock Gilchrist is in the hunt to potentially steal a second career win tomorrow if he can get a good start from fifth. He qualified ahead of the field’s leading rookie Dion Pitt.

Hugo Allan and Ronan Murphy make up row four, while Christina Orr-West and Flynn Osborne make up the top-ten.

Less than half-a-second covered the first ten cars.

All three of the weekend’s races are on tomorrow’s track programme, with nothing scheduled for Sunday.