Whincup goes radical for pole

A radical set-up has helped Jamie Whincup break his ARMOR ALL Pole Position duck at Hidden Valley, while fellow Holden hero Garth Tander's return to the top 10 today in qualifying for the SKYCITY Triple Crown Darwin were aided by upgrades to his Holden Racing Team Commodore including more engine power.

Whincup, who runs fourth in the Championship in his Red Bull Racing Holden Commodore, 213 points off the pace of arch rival Mark Winterbottom, said he and engineer David Cauchi went out on a limb with a radical set-up to claim pole for both 100km hard tyre races this afternoon.

"We had to do something, we can't just keep running around in fourth and fifth all year," Whincup said. "We have to back ourselves and have a dip and the guys have done that and it has paid off so far."

The relationship between Whincup and Cauchi has been under the media spotlight because of the five time champion's inconsistent performances this year and his admission that it might take the entire year for them to click as a pairing.

However, Whincup said he and Cauchi had taken stock in the break between the Perth 400 and Darwin.

"We are only a new partnership and we disregarded how new it was in the second quarter of the first half," Whincup admitted. "But really we did understand over the break that it is quite new and we have a lot to learn.

"We have come a long way over the break and I am really happy."

Whincup said it was nice to break his pole duck in Darwin, taking his tally to six for the year.

"We haven't had a pole here so to get two is quite nice although it doesn't guarantee anything this afternoon, which is what it is all about," said Whincup.

"The races will be typical Darwin; it's very hot and the track is very abrasive and tyre degradation is going to be absolutely everything.

"That has been our focus all weekend ... making the car quick over a lot of laps rather than just one. Time will tell, but I am confident we have made a step forward in our package and we can continue on from qualifying."

Tander has had a horror 2014, running only 15th in the Championship and struggling to qualify in the top 10. He qualified fifth for Race 17 and sixth for Race 18.

"Let's not pop the fireworks because we are fifth and sixth, but it's good to be back in the 10 and have some consistency over the two sessions," said Tander.

"We generally race better than we qualify and we are up against the big boys now so let's see where we are at."

HRT is part of the four-car Walkinshaw Racing V8 Supercars operation, which has been the subject of a massive overhaul under new managing director Adrian Burgess in 2014. Tander revealed the changes continued for Darwin.

"The car is better, we have had a bit of time to catch our breath, we've made some improvements to the engine which obviously help here and we have been able to get on top of things a bit more.

"We have thrown a lot of stuff at the cars over the first five months of the year and not had a lot of time to actually sit down and analyse it. So that is what we have been able to do, but by no means do we feel like we are there.

"We will keep chipping away it."

Race 17 begins at 2.20pm local time.