Kostecki edges Waters, disaster for van Gisbergen

Brodie Kostecki has pipped Cam Waters to Race 17 provisional pole at the NTI Townsville 500, with Shane van Gisbergen to start his 500th race from last.

The margin between Kostecki (#99 Coca-Cola Camaro) and Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) was just 0.0968s after 15 frantic minutes of ARMOR ALL Qualifying.

The session ended in drama as van Gisbergen — who was battling car issues — threw away his fast lap with an error at Turn 11.

Both Red Bull Ampol Camaros missed a Shootout berth, with Broc Feeney bumped at the death.

Van Gisbergen will start his 500th Supercars race from 25th and last, with Feeney to launch from 13th.

It was a far happier story at Erebus Motorsport, with points leader Will Brown shrugging off a power steering issue to steal the final Shootout spot.

Brown snuck into the Shootout by just 0.0123s over Penrite Racing driver Matt Payne.

The top 10 drivers were covered by 0.3901s, with six Fords and four Chevrolets to feature in the one-lap dash.

Kostecki’s 1:12.8387s was nearly 0.5s quicker than Waters’ provisional pole time from Saturday.

Todd Hazelwood (#3 CoolDrive Mustang) was fastest on a 1:13.4545s from Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro) early on.

Kostecki laid down the quickest lap of the weekend with a 1:13.2543s before Jack Le Brocq (#34 Truck Assist Camaro) and David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang) went quicker again.

Arms were flailing in the Triple Eight and Erebus garages, with Brown’s #9 Coca-Cola Camaro losing power steering.

Van Gisbergen got out of his #97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro and talked with race engineer Andrew Edwards.

The reigning champion has been suffering from handling issues since Darwin, and returned to his car for a final run.

In the final runs, Feeney jumped from 15th to sixth, but the times continued to tumble.

Kostecki powered to the top with a 1:12.8387s, before Waters jumped to second with a 1:12.9255s.

Feeney was bumped from the Shootout as the likes of Brown, Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Mustang) and Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) improved.

The top 10 order was Kostecki, Waters, Mostert, Reynolds, Le Brocq, Randle, Heimgartner, Shell V-Power Racing Team teammates Anton De Pasquale (#11 Mustang) and Will Davison (#17 Mustang), and Brown.

Van Gisbergen was last on a 1:18.5392s, officially 5.7005s away from pole, as he failed to set a representative time.

The Race 17 grid will be finalised by the ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout at 12:00pm AEST, with the race to start at 2:40pm.