The trigger point for shock Randle shootout berth
Thomas Randle believes he still has time left in his arsenal after securing a maiden shootout berth.
Tickford rookie Randle qualified eighth in Sunday morning qualifying in Townsville.
It helped the 2020 Super2 champion clinch a maiden ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout berth.
The 26-year-old will be third man out in the one-lap dash, which will commence at midday.
Randle loomed to break into the top 10 on Saturday, but missed out by 0.07s.
On Sunday, he made it count, and the time came on his first push lap.
“Yesterday we almost made it in; today, I just wanted to improve,” Randle said.
“We went out yesterday on roaded fronts and were expecting lap two. Today, everyone was going on lap one.
“Just wanted to make sure I got my warm-up lap properly.
“My engineer Ray was in my ear, ‘Work those fronts more’.
“We left it fairly similar to my race car… we had fairly reasonable car rotation.
“I tried not to overshoot entries on my second run, I didn’t drive it very well on my first run.
“There’s probably still time in me."
For race engineer Raymond Lau, it was simple: Randle did a better job, and he converted.
“Thomas just did a better job today,” Lau told Supercars.com.
“He just put the lap together. We were pretty confident the speed was in the car.
“Starting towards the front is big for us; when you’re buried in the pack, it’s tough.
“We where fairly happy with our race car yesterday. We’ll tune it up to try and go faster."
Randle, who finished 16th on Saturday, is 22nd in the points.
