Matt Payne has sounded a warning to his rivals at the Bathurst 1000, setting the fastest lap so far to take provisional pole.
Prodigious Grove Racing star Payne shot to the top in the dying minutes of Friday’s qualifying final, overcoming a red flag to finish ahead of Cam Waters and Broc Feeney by six thousandths of a second at Mount Panorama.
He will be the last driver to launch a solo effort during the top-10 shootout at 5.05pm (AEDT) on Saturday after posting a lap time of two minutes 5.645 seconds.
“The qualifying session was a little bit messy with a couple of red flags, but I managed to put it together at the end,” Payne said.
“That felt pretty good, and pretty happy with where we are now.”
Waters was second, ahead of Feeney in third by 0.0053 seconds.
Red Bull star Feeney, who became the first driver to clock a lap time under two minutes 0.7 seconds, had to abort his last challenge when a Will Davison crash halted the session.
“I got the red flag at the last corner but it’s been a pretty good session from us,” Feeney said.
“All of our laps were in that top three.
“The goal today was to get through the shootout with a clean car and a good idea of where we need to be for tomorrow.”
Feeney’s teammate and championship leader Will Brown made the shootout in fifth while reigning champion Brodie Kostecki finished fourth after sustaining damage to his right rear just after The Grate.
The Erebus driver, who clocked the fastest time in practice four before qualifying, had set the fastest time in the opening 25 minutes with his first lap.
Meanwhile, two-time Bathurst winner Davison and one-time champion David Reynolds endured nightmare crashes in the Esses.
Reynolds lost the rear and spun out of control with 23 minutes to go, smashing head-first into the concrete wall before The Dipper while in fourth spot.
Davison then lost his Ford Mustang’s rear in the cement dust from Reynolds’ crash and ended up in the apex wall at The Dipper.
Reynolds will start Sunday’s race 21st on the grid and Davison 14th.
“I’m fine, more than fine actually – I’m just really angry that happened. We are pushing the limits and every now and then that happens,” Reynolds said.
“I probably shouldn’t have stayed up at that second lap, because obviously the tires start to go away and everything gets way more skaty.
“I was probably pushing too hard for the conditions, and, yeah, I got bitten bad.”
Drivers will have two practice sessions before the top-10 shootout on Saturday.
BATHURST 1000 PROVISIONAL QUALIFYING
1. Matt Payne (Grove Racing)
2. Cam Waters (Tickford Racing)
3. Broc Feeney (Triple Eight Race Engineering)
4. Brodie Kostecki (Erebus Motorsport)
5. Will Brown (Triple Eight Race Engineering)
6. Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United)
7. Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing)
8. Jack Le Brocq (Erebus Motorsport)
9. Anton De Pasquale (Dick Johnson Racing)
10. Richie Stanaway (Grove Racing).
