Waters grabs Sunday poles in Tasmania

Cam Waters will start both of today’s Supercars races at Symmons Plains from pole position.

Meanwhile, on a day he can re-write series history, Shane van Gisbergen will have to come from sixth and seventh if he is to continue his winning streak.

A pair of short qualifying sessions determined the running order for races seven and eight of the championship.

The field was divided into two groups for each qualifying segment, with combined times setting the grid order.

Race Seven

The majority of the group one field waited into the final minutes to set their best times.

Waters surged to the number one spot in group one with a 50.763s lap time. That was enough to edge out Will Brown while yesterday’s race winner van Gisbergen could only manage fourth.

Group two would have their times combined with those of group one to settle pole position. However, lap times were significantly slower at the start of the session.

Anton de Pasquale was the first to get within touching distance of Waters, moving up to second overall.

He was then beaten by Jamie Whincup. The seven-time series champion was 0.101s behind Waters at the chequered flag but had done enough to secure a front-row start.

De Pasquale will lead Brown off row two, with Davison and van Gisbergen rounding out the top-six.

Fabian Coulthard was a notable 11th, one place up on the third Kiwi in the field Andre Heimgartner.

Race Eight

Session times for each group were reduced from eight to just five minutes this time around. It meant most drivers could only manage two flying laps before the chequered flag.

Group one appeared to have the fastest track conditions. Waters again set the fastest lap to secure back-to-back pole positions.

This time around, he will be joined by former teammate Chaz Mostert on the front row.

De Pasquale was the quickest in group two, and his best effort landed him third position for the weekend’s final race.

Matt Stone Racing’s Zane Goddard was a highly commendable fourth fastest. Goddard has only one top-ten finish to his name in his short Supercars career, with his best result coming at Sydney Motorsport Park last year.

Davison was fifth fastest, ahead of Triple Eight duo Whincup and van Gisbergen.

Coulthard backed up his strong showing from the earlier session to qualify 13th, with Andre Heimgartner still looking uncomfortable in the Kelly Racing Mustang and will start the race from 17th.