Holden clinches 300th pole
Jamie Whincup has made the most of the final qualifying race at the Wilson Security Sandown 500, earning Holden's 300thV8 Supercar Pole Position.
After his co-driver Paul Dumbrell got the #1 to the front, Whincup powered on to beat the recently dominant Prodrive Fords of Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert to take the important pole position at one of the year's most prestigious races.
It's Whincup's first ARMOR ALL Pole Position since the season opening Clipsal 500 and is a positive step on the way to he and Dumbrell taking their a three-peat at the Sandown classic.
The last Holden to earn a pole position was James Courtney in a Holden Racing Team Commodore in Darwin.
"PD did a phenomenal job to get us up from third to pole at the end there," Whincup said.
"It was a tough battle -we don't have the quickest car out there but we maximised it ... My first pole for a long time, I'm pretty happy."
Dumbrell was pleased to start from the front for the 500.
"A bit of work overnight and hopefully we come out strong tomorrow," he said.
While car #1 starts at the front, the sister #888 Commodore will be on the second last row, after Craig Lowndes was handed a pit lane penalty in the race after contact with Jack Perkins.
While the HRT sub did well early, he was later caught in an accident with Andre Heimgartner, which left the #22 with damage and having to start at the back of the grid.
The Heimgartner incident triggered a safety car, and the Prodrive cars battled hard on the restart, a tap from Winterbottom sending his teammate off-track, though Mostert was able to hold on for third.
Shane van Gisbergen and David Reynolds completed the top five, ahead of two Walkinshaw Racing cars of Tim Slade and Lee Holdsworth.
Click here for full results.
There's a final 20-minute warm-up session tomorrow morning before the 500km race, which kicks off at 1.25pm local time.
