Best takes Bathurst pole with new lap record

Zak Best has powered to pole position for the Dunlop Series opener at the Repco Bathurst 1000 with a new Super2 lap record at Mount Panorama.

Best will share the Race 1 grid with Eggleston Motorsport driver Kai Allen, with Best and Allen first and second in the Super2 standings.

All four Super2 title contenders are in the top seven for Friday’s 100km race, with Ryan Wood and Cooper Murray fourth and seventh respectively.

Best clocked a 2:05.2863s to not only take pole by 0.1822s, but undercut a category lap practice/qualifying record that had stood for six years.

The Anderson Motorsport driver knocked off Jack Le Brocq’s 2:05.3898s, set in 2017 aboard an MW Motorsport Nissan Altima. Best’s time was 0.1035s quicker than Le Brocq’s record.

Allen and Aaron Love were both within 0.1s of going below Le Brocq’s time, such is the jump in speed the with newer-generation cars.

Super3 rival Ryan Gilroy won’t take part for the remainder for the weekend following his Thursday crash, with the Novocastrian sustaining a concussion in the heavy impact.

Best, who arrived in Bathurst with a 33-point lead over Allen, rolled out early in the Super2 segment of qualifying and set about asserting himself on his rivals.

A 2:05.2863s proved the tonic, with the Victorian taking his first Super2 pole since Perth on April 29. He also became the fifth different driver in as many starts to take a Super2 pole this season.

Love, who ended Thursday on top, was an even 0.2s from pole, with Wood just 0.029s behind the Blanchard Racing Team Mustang. Tickford Racing rookie Brad Vaughan, who took poles in Perth and Sandown, was 0.23s down in fifth ahead of Jay Hanson and Murray.

Zach Bates, Jack Perkins and Zane Morse rounded out the top 10, with Matt Chahda only 18th after clouting the Forrest's Elbow wall. It continued Chahda's tough weekend after he sustained a broken sway bar in Thursday practice.

Earlier, Cameron McLeod took his eighth Super3 pole from nine attempts this season, and qualified an impressed 12th overall in the 25-car field.

The 18-lap Race 1 will commence at 3:15pm AEDT on Friday afternoon.