Van Gisbergen beats Davison, Waters in tight shootout

Shane van Gisbergen has edged Will Davison and Cam Waters in Saturday's thrilling NTI Townsville 500 shootout.

Points leader van Gisbergen, who was ninth man out, pipped Davison to ARMOR ALL Pole by just 0.004s.

Provisional pole man Waters loomed to beat them both, but proved 0.02s slower than Davison.

It marked van Gisbergen’s fourth pole of 2022, fourth in Townsville and 42nd of his career.

“The car’s awesome,” van Gisbergen said.

“We were one of the only guys on new tyres then, so that helped us.

“To be on the front row here for this afternoon is a huge help.

“Cam’s been the fastest car, and to be that close on old tyres is impressive.

“We’ll see what happens, patience in the race and put [Super] Softs on at the end."

Waters will share the second row with Andre Heimgartner, with Anton De Pasquale fifth.

De Pasquale is 214 points behind van Gisbergen.

Jack Le Brocq impressed to sixth ahead of Chaz Mostert, with Broc Feeney, Tim Slade and Scott Pye rounding out the top 10.

Slade was first man out, and was the first to contend with cold Hard tyres and debris at Turn 11 following a support category accident.

Mostert was the first driver into the 1:13s, before De Pasquale went over a tenth quicker.

Davison blew them all out of the water, with the Shell V-Power Racing Team veteran putting 0.3s on his teammate.

Van Gisbergen edged Davison by a scant 0.004s, with last-man-out Waters just 0.03s on used tyres. 

The 88-lap NTI Townsville 500 opener will commence at 2:45pm local time.