Kiwi drivers Matt Payne and Richie Stanaway remain in contention for pole position at the 2026 Bathurst 1000 after their respective entries secured places in Saturday evening’s Top 10 Shootout at Mount Panorama.
Friday evening’s qualifying was dramatic, with several championship frontrunners missing the cut as rookie Zach Bates delivered a remarkable lap to claim provisional pole position.
Payne, sharing the Grove Racing Ford Mustang with fellow Kiwi motorsport veteran Will Davison, secured ninth place, giving the pair another chance to move up the grid ahead of Sunday’s Great Race.
Meanwhile, Richie Stanaway’s co-driver James Golding secured the final spot in the Top 10 Shootout, putting the Blanchard Racing Team entry in contention for a strong starting position.
The two entries were the only Kiwi-represented combinations to progress, with Andre Heimgartner, Fabian Coulthard and Ryan Wood all missing out.
Heimgartner and co-driver Bryce Fullwood qualified 15th, while Coulthard and Chaz Mostert were left disappointed in 16th aboard their Walkinshaw TWG Racing Toyota Supra.
Mostert was among several high-profile drivers who couldn’t find the pace to advance, alongside championship contenders Broc Feeney and Cam Waters.
Further down the order, it was a particularly challenging day for Kiwi duo Ryan Wood and Jaxon Evans, who qualified 25th.
Wood’s Bathurst campaign had already suffered a significant setback earlier in the day following a heavy crash at Forrest’s Elbow during Practice 3.
Wood hit the inside wall before being thrown across the circuit into the outside barrier, leaving his Walkinshaw TWG Racing Toyota with substantial damage.
Despite the setback, the team worked to get the car back on track, but the Kiwi pairing now faces an uphill battle from the rear of the field.
At the front, Matt Stone Racing rookie Zach Bates stole the headlines with an extraordinary 2:03.9376s lap, becoming the first driver to break the two-minute-four-second barrier in a Gen3 Supercar around Mount Panorama.
The lap eclipsed Brodie Kostecki’s previous Gen3 qualifying benchmark of 2:04.0307s and put Bates just over a tenth clear of Anton De Pasquale.
Cooper Murray completed an all-Chevrolet top three, while Will Brown led the Ford field in fourth, ahead of Kostecki in fifth.
David Reynolds secured sixth, followed by Bates’ Matt Stone Racing teammate Jack Le Brocq in seventh and Jayden Ojeda in eighth, with Payne and Golding completing the top ten.
Bates, competing in his first full-time Supercars season, was visibly emotional following his standout performance, dedicating the achievement to his mother, Alison Drower, who passed away before last year’s Bathurst 1000.
“This is for my mum who passed last year. We’ve had a pretty average year, the whole family, so this is definitely a highlight. I’m super thankful.”
While Bates has provisionally secured the fastest time, the battle for pole position is far from over, with Saturday’s Top 10 Shootout set to determine the first five rows of the grid for Sunday’s 1000km race.
For Payne and Stanaway, it’s one final chance to secure a strong starting position at Australia’s most famous circuit.
Saturday’s action begins with Practice 5 at 12:05pm NZT, followed by Practice 6 at 3:10pm NZT, then the all-important Top 10 Shootout at 7:05pm NZT.
Header Image: Dan Kelzke / Kelzke Optics
