Brown crashes, Wood flies in wild Gold Coast Shootout
Will Brown crashes, Ryan Wood flies in wild Gold Coast Shootout
Reigning champion Brown in doubt for Saturday's race after chicane crash
Broc Feeney vaults from ninth to second, Wood claims second career pole
A crash for Will Brown has continued the barely-believable Finals drama at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, with Ryan Wood claiming pole position in an enthralling one-lap dash.
Walkinshaw Andretti United rising star Wood was the benchmark in a Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout headlined by a shock incident for reigning champion Brown.
Triple Eight Race Engineering is now racing the clock to get Brown on track for Race 28, which will commence at 3:15pm local/4:15pm AEDT.
"I told myself going into the Beach Chicane, 'Let's not screw this up,' and that's exactly what happened," Brown said.
"We should just be running some Stadium Super Trucks out there, because that's basically what we're doing through the chicanes, you just straight line them and hope you come out.
"I didn't get out the other side in that one, so disappointing, but we'll work hard."
Wood will share the front row with championship leader Broc Feeney, who vaulted from ninth to second.
Team 18's Anton De Pasquale kicked off the Shootout with a 1:10.1308s, narrowly escaping brushing the wall at the exit of both the first chicane and the Beach Chicane.
In response, Feeney flew through the first sector, and after a brave run through the Beach Chicane, nailed a 1:09.2019s to put nearly one second on De Pasquale.
2015 Gold Coast winner James Courtney laid down a seemingly conservative 1:09.4386s, yet still ended up just 0.23s off Feeney's flyer. Two-time Gold Coast pole winner Cam Waters was just down on Feeney through Sector 1, and lost more time through the middle of the lap to fall 0.21s short of his Triple Eight rival.
Feeney's rapid first sector held up as James Golding set off, but the PremiAir Racing driver still managed to drag time back in the last two sectors to jump ahead of Waters. However, it was knocked off by Brown, who pushed hard to make a statement.
Instead, in a near identical incident to Bryce Fullwood's Friday crash, Brown lost control exiting the Beach Chicane, clouting the tyre barriers and wiping the nose of the #1 Red Bull Ampol Camaro across the concrete.
It left Reynolds, Wood, Mostert and Payne standing between Feeney and a stunning ninth-to-pole performance. Reynolds clocked a 1:09.5513s to move ahead of his teammate, before Wood finally displaced Feeney, albeit to the tune of 0.043s.
Mostert went next, and escaped a brush with the wall exiting the Beach Chicane to fall just 0.112s short.
It left Payne in his old mate's way, but the Penrite Racing driver could only record a 1:09.2112s to wind up third and help Wood to a second career pole position.
