DJR drivers back costly qualifying gamble

The Shell V-Power Racing Team’s qualifying gamble at the OTR SuperSprint was a case of “risk and reward”, says Anton De Pasquale.

The red Fords were among the fastest cars after the first runs in Race 20 knockout qualifying, only to miss Q3 altogether.

Will Davison was first with De Pasquale third, but the Dick Johnson Racing squad opted to keep both cars in the lane as their rivals rolled out for final Q2 runs.

Times rapidly improved, Davison and De Pasquale ending up 13th and 14th before Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki sailed to pole.

Kostecki’s 1:49.8622s lap was relative to Davison’s 1:50.4746s, with the Erebus driver later taking pole by nearly 0.4s.

Speaking afterwards, De Pasquale admitted the team “probably misread” the situation, but cited previous instances where they’d worked through tyre banks to get through qualifying.

“We just got bumped,” the #11 Mustang driver said on the broadcast.

“It’s hard, because a few times this year we’ve gone when we probably shouldn’t have, you don’t have a set of greens and you end up in the back part of the 10 anyway.

“We probably misread it… risk and reward. That’s part of our sport. We’re not too upset, we’ll fight from here.”

Davison said he was surprised to be first after the opening runs given he wasn’t overly impressed by his lap.

When asked of there was more pace in the cars, Davison said: "There was definitely a little bit more speed.

“Like Anton said, we’ve used sets when we probably shouldn’t have, then we’ve had nothing in Q3 to fight with.

“We made a call recently that we’re in this together. If we’re in a position like that, stick to your guns, and if we get bumped, we get bumped.

"I didn’t expect that many cars to go quicker then, maybe a lot of people used re-used out the gate.

“Pretty disappointing, because we’re definitely quick enough to be well and truly in the top 10.”

Championship leader Kostecki will share the front row with Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle.

The 20-lap Race 20 will commence at 4:30pm local time/5:00pm AEST.