Second Shootout for Surfers Paradise

The Vodafone Gold Coast 600 will feature ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootouts on both days this year, following recent tweaks to the event schedule.

Traditionally only used at the Surfers Paradise event on the Sunday, a Top 10 Shootout will also follow regular AMROR ALL Qualifying ahead of the Saturday race.

The extra Shootout effectively replaces the Saturday morning practice session in a schedule re-jigged following CAMS’ recent ban on the Stadium Super Trucks support class.

Supercars action starts on Friday with three 30-minute practice sessions, before a single 20-minute Qualifying, Top 10 Shootout and 300km race on Saturday and Sunday.

It means the season will feature a total of nine Shootouts, with Pukekohe to stage a Top 10 run-off for the first-time next month, and another to follow in Newcastle.

This year is set to be the last of Gold Coast's pair of 300km races, with the Supercars Commission expected to next week ratify a switch to a single 500km race for 2019.

Shane van Gisbergen has been king of the Top 10 sessions so far this year with three ARMOR ALL Shootout Poles, all on street circuits – two in Adelaide and one in Townsville.

Rick Kelly and David Reynolds are the only other drivers to score Shootout poles so far in 2018, the former at Hidden Valley and latter at Bathurst.

Van Gisbergen also has strong Gold Coast qualifying form, scoring one pole at the venue in each of the last four years, including in the Sunday Shootout 12 months ago, above.

Recent changes to the Gold Coast 600 schedule also included the introduction of the Kumho V8 Touring Cars as a support class, featuring previous-generation Supercars.

A 14-car field is expected for the non-points races, including an entry from Brad Jones Racing with its Dunlop Super2 Series driver Jack Smith.