Waters pips Slade for provisional pole in Sydney finale qualifying, Wood ninth

Cam Waters has pipped Tim Slade to claim provisional pole ahead of the Top 10 Shootout for this evening’s Sydney SuperNight race at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Waters’ 1:29.8144 was only 0.009s faster than Slade’s best effort and 0.075s to the good of third-fastest Nick Percat.

Shell V-Power Racing’s Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale’s strong pace in Sydney continued in Race 16 qualifying, with Davison progressing in fourth and De Pasquale to sixth.

Saturday’s race winner, Chaz Mostert, split the pair despite aborting his first flyer and relying on late laps to secure his berth in the shootout.

Championship leader Will Brown qualified in seventh, but his Red Bull Racing teammate Broc Feeney struggled for pace in a tight mid-field and will start the race from 16th.

James Golding pipped Ryan Wood for eighth, the latter surviving as the only Kiwi in the Top 10 Shootout despite incurring a kerb strike on his final lap.

David Reynolds snuck into the top ten at the expense of Matt Payne, who had his last two lap times invalidated for track limit offences.

Andre Heimgartner will start the 51-lap finale in 15th, while Jaxon Evans and Richie Stanaway lockout the 12th row in the 23rd and 24th, respectively.

Waters had led the way at the halfway point with a 1:30.1544 set as the early benchmark, just 0.012 seconds ahead of Wood. Payne was third, 0.0238s off the top.

De Pasquale set the new benchmark at 1:30.1453 in the ninth minute before his teammate went nearly two-tenths quicker to claim the provisional pole entering the final five minutes.

Golding jumped to third, behind the Shell V-Power duo, as most of the field sat in pit lane ahead of the final runs.

Mostert had yet to set a representative time and sat 25th, aborting a flyer that looked set to put him deep in the top ten to instead rely on his final laps.

The field returned to the track for a one-lap shootout in the final two minutes.

Mostert jumped from last to first with a 1:29.9491 entering the final minute but was quickly topped by Waters and then Slade.

Payne incurred a kerb strike on his penultimate lap while looking likely to improve, and did the same again on his final tour. Wood also had his final time invalidated, leaving the Kiwi duo precariously poised in eighth and ninth, with the final times yet to come in.

Percat climbed to third with his final flyer, and Davison improved at the expense of Mostert.

Reynolds was the last driver to cross the line and snuck into the top 1o at the expense of Payne, with just 0.0077 seconds separating the pair.

The Top 10 Shootout for Race 16 begins at 3.40 pm NZST and is followed by the 51-lap race at 6.05 pm.

Sydney SuperNight Race 2 Provisional Grid