Waters defeats Davison in thrilling qualifying

Cam Waters has stolen Race 27 pole from under the nose of Will Davison at Pukekohe.

Waters and Davison will start on the front row for Saturday’s ITM Auckland SuperSprint.

The margin between the two Fords was a scant 0.06s after thrilling three-part ARMOR ALL Qualifying.

Davison, who has scored eight poles in 2022, led heading into the final runs in Q3.

Waters pulled a rabbit out of the hat to score an eighth pole of his own.

The Tickford Racing driver’s pole was also his second at Pukekohe.

Waters last scored pole at the Auckland venue in 2017 following a qualifying washout.

Points leader Shane van Gisbergen was only good enough for seventh, with Chaz Mostert slotting into third.

Anton De Pasquale was fourth ahead of Andre Heimgartner and Scott Pye.

Broc Feeney was eighth ahead of the impressive James Golding, with James Courtney 10th.

Davison appeared the man to beat after finishing second in Practice 1 and first in Practice 2.

However, while he was unable to improve on his 1:02.068s, Waters dropped in the first 1:01s of the weekend.

The session was declared wet before the start, with light rain falling early in Q3.

Six drivers pushed on; that group didn’t include van Gisbergen, who remained in the lane.

The threat of rain remained, but Waters was undeterred and motored to pole.

Earlier, Davison set the pace in Q2 on a 1:02.023s, with Pye sneaking into the 10.

Nick Percat was bumped out by Courtney just before the chequered flag in Q2.

Percat’s time came on used rubber; he will start 11th alongside Tim Slade.

Jake Kostecki, David Reynolds, Macauley Jones and Thomas Randle were 13th through 16th.

Randle suffered a scare at the final corner and surfed through the grass.

Jones, meanwhile, earned passage into Q2 despite his car carrying a transponder issue.

However, he avoided the fate that beset Brodie Kostecki in Practice 2.

Jack Smith will start his 100th race from 17th ahead of Mark Winterbottom, Jack Le Brocq and Brodie Kostecki.

Jones’ transponder issue ensured Bryce Fullwood failed to progress from Q1.

Will Brown, Lee Holdsworth, Todd Hazelwood and Chris Pither brought up the rear.

The 41-lap Race 27 will commence at 4:40pm local time/2:40pm AEST.