Young Will Brown secured the first pole position of his budding Supercars career after leaving the Red Bull superstar duo ahead of the 23rd race at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Brown drove one minute and 29.03 seconds to overtake Jamie Whincup and overtake Shane van Gisbergen in third fastest, earning Erebus Motorsport its first pole position in more than two years.
“It’s bloody great. The guys did a fantastic job and just pumped,” 23-year-old rookie Brown told Fox Sports.
“It’s great with the team, I’ve got them some beer money to keep them happy, so we’ll see how things go from here.”
Brown is now the first rookie pole sitter since Chris Pither in 2016.
The Toowoomba-born Holden youngster recently secured his first ever podium finish and finished second in Race 22 behind Ford’s Anton De Pasquale.
Brown said he hopes to take it one step further in Race 23, which starts at 7.45pm (AEDT) on Saturday.
“I will go for this win. So we will take a big jump in the race and see where we end up,” he said.
There was a drama at the beginning of qualifying when De Pasquale of Shell V-Power was unable to start due to a transmission problem.
De Pasquale, who won two of the three races last weekend, was fastest in Saturday’s practice sessions, but his mechanical problem cost him a shot at his eighth pole of the year.
“My thing has been going well for the past two weeks, I haven’t had a single bad shift or anything, has been introduced, and that’s what we got,” said de Pasquale.
“So yeah, a little strange. I’ve never seen it before, so we’ll change it, analyze it, think about it another day, but change it first and see how we go along this path. “
Supercars Race 23 Qualifying Results:
1. Will Brown (Erebus Motorsport) 1min: 29.03sec
2. Jamie Whincup (Red Bull Ampol Racing) + 0.0285 sec.
3. Shane van Gisbergen (Red Bull Ampol Racing) + 0.0702 sec.
4. Will Davison (Shell V-Power Racing) +0.0913 sec.
5. Brodie Kostecki (Erebus Boost Mobile Racing) + 0.1269 sec.
Ranking of the Supercars Championship:
1. Shane van Gisbergen (Red Bull Ampol Racing) 2198 points
2. Jamie Whincup (Red Bull Ampol Racing) 1860 points
3. Will Davison (Shell V-Power Racing) 1735 points
4. Chaz Mostert (Mobil 1 Appliances Online Racing) 1702 points
5. Cameron Waters (Monster Energy Racing) 1670 points
Australian Associated Press
