Hughes flies to maiden Dunlop Series pole

Jarrod Hughes has claimed his first career Dunlop Series pole position after a frantic Boost Mobile Qualifying on Sunday morning at Sandown.

The Image Racing rookie set the fastest time of the weekend at 1:08.8738s to beat Tickford’s Brad Vaughan to the pole, and was the only driver to break the 1:09s barrier.

Hughes, who enters today fifth in points and second best rookie behind Max Vidau, became the sixth different pole winner of the season.

The former Toyota 86 star was over the moon with his breakthrough performance, with the likes of Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan and 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner Paul Morris on hand to congratulate the 19-year-old Queenslander.

“Unbelievable, to be honest,” Hughes said.

“The radio wasn’t working that well, I’m like, ‘Wayne [Mackie, engineer], tell me what I got?’ I couldn’t hear him, I lost my voice.

“I was screaming out there like crazy once I found out. Can’t thank the boys enough for everything they've done, they gave me an absolutely awesome car this morning. 

“All my sponsors, it wouldn't be possible without them. Unbelievable, can’t wait. A lot of my family, even my brother in law has put in and helped me get to this. It’s awesome to finally give back to them."

The session was declared wet prior to its commencement, and the whole field rolled out on wet tyres on a drying track.

Around half the field would come straight back into pit lane to change onto dry tyres, and Aaron Cameron set the best of the banker times on wets with a 1:14.5216s.

However, the dry tyre was immediately a second quicker in the hands of Cameron’s teammate Mason Kelly, and the times proceeded to rapidly tumble.

Zach Bates was the best of the first dry tyre runs on a 1:09.4835s, ahead of Cameron McLeod on a 1:09.4860s, and Brad Vaughan on a 1: 09.5169s.

An off-sequence Jordyn Sinni would go to the top on a 1:09.4479s in his Eggleston Commodore, as the field rolled out for their green tyre runs with about six minutes remaining.

The final green tyre run would prove to be the fastest Dunlop Series run of the weekend, with Cooper Murray the first to lay down a serious marker on a 1:09.1886s.

The Eggleston driver was soon knocked off the top spot by Hughes, who set his first sub-1:09s lap with a 1:08.9831s. 

Murray had two more flying laps that looked likely to threaten Hughes’ marker, however both laps weren’t quite enough, before Hughes improved further on his last lap to lock in pole.

Murray would be bumped down to third late by Brad Vaughan, who jumped to the front row of the grid on a 1:09.0022s.

Murray will be joined on the second row of the grid by Hughes’ fellow Erebus Academy prospect Jobe Stewart, who finished second in yesterday’s race.

Zach Bates heads a Walkinshaw Andretti United third row lockout, with teammate Campbell Logan alongside in sixth.

Series leader Kai Allen will line up behind Bates in seventh on the grid, ahead of Cameron McLeod, Race 1 winner Jack Perkins, and Jordyn Sinni who rounds out the top ten.

Cameron will start from 12th, having had to make do with a used tyre while everyone else were on their green tyre runs.

Cody Burcher was the best of the Super3 runners in 15th outright, setting a 1:09.6432s in his MW Motorsport Nissan.

Race 2 for the Dunlop Series will be the curtain raiser for this afternoon’s Penrite Oil Sandown 500, beginning at 12:40pm AEST.