Waters pinches pole

Cameron Waters has edgedSeriesleader Ash Walsh for ARMOR ALL Pole Position in the first qualifying session for the Dunlop Series at the Castrol Townsville 500 - driven by TAFE Queensland.

The ENZED Falcon eclipsed Walsh's best of 1min14.52s in the dying stages of the 15-minute session, taking pole position by 0.09 of a second.

Waters, who currently sits seventh in the points, scored the quickest time after mistakes in his first two efforts hindered his attempt at pole.

"I was pretty excited about it [pole position], my first couple of laps I didn't really get my lap together that well," he told v8supercars.com.au.

"I knew the time was in the car I was just hoping I didn't torch my rears my doing it.

"I managed to get a lap together right at the end to pip Ash, so it's good to get one back on him.

"Hopefully we can stay there in the race - it's a 29 lap race so we've just got to look after the tyres to be there in the end."

Walsh's best was set in the early stages of qualifying, and said he encountered difficulty piloting the Infant's Friend falcon during the session. However, the Matt Stone Racing driver remains optimistic for the 29 lap race ahead this afternoon.

"I'm a little disappointed to be honest, we were chasing turn for qualifying and I think we just went a little bit too far," he explained.

"It was pretty hard to string a couple of laps together.

"P2 is still a front row start and it's still a really good position to start from."

Eggleston Motorsport driver Paul Dumbrell, who is 104 points adrift of Walsh in the Seriesstandings, completed the top three, followed by stable-mate Gary Jacobson in fourth.

"It's been a pretty good start, we had a few things that we were working on this morning in regard to yesterday's practice - we had a bit of time to find," Jacobson told v8supercars.com.au.

"I'm really feeling good about the race today - get a good start, put my head down and focus on my braking markers.

"I'm sure we'll have a great day as long as I tick the things that need to be ticked and everything else will sort itself out."

Chris Pither separated Ant Pedersen from joining his Eggleston Motorsport counterparts in 5th, while Andrew Jones, Steven Johnson, Andre Heimgartner and Aaren Russell rounded out the top 10.

Click here for full sesison results.

The Dunlop Series' first race today at the Castrol Townsville 500 - driven by TAFE Queensland begins at 3.30pm.