How Jones pulled off shock provisional second in Darwin

Macauley Jones has a golden opportunity to achieve his career-best Supercars qualifying performance after a stunning run in Boost Mobile Qualifying for Race 19 at the betr Darwin Triple Crown.

The 30-year-old struggled for one lap pace yesterday in Hidden Valley, starting 18th and 25th for the 120km sprints, and recording finishes of 18th and 19th.

It was a tough day for the second side of the Brad Jones Racing Garage, with Jaxon Evans suffering weekend-ending damage in a first corner tangle with Richie Stanaway in the opening race.

However, both Andre Heimgartner and Bryce Fullwood have had consistent top 10 speed all weekend in the team's flagship #8 and #14 Camaros, and that speed translated to Jones this morning.

The Albury product starred this morning, finishing fifth in the opening segment of qualifying before finishing a stunning provisional second in the second segment, with Jones paying tribute to the BJR crew for the remarkable last to second turnaround.

"We made some pretty big changes overnight, I wasn't really happy with the car," said Jones.

"It was just very finnicky to get right, the window was very small, and so we've opened up that window today and it's just felt good out of the gate really.

"Once you feel good out of the gate you're confident to just find those little extra half-tenth areas, and that's where the improvement came from."

Jones recorded his career-best qualifying in Tasmania, when he qualified fourth for Race 12, before finishing fifth after fighting for the lead at one stage.

The 2017 Super2 Bathurst 250 winner admitted that it's been frustrating at times with how competitive the Gen3 era has been, and also revealed he used up all of his new tyres to make the Shootout.

"That's almost the frustrating part about it, it's like you're on the wrong side of a tenth and you're not looking good, but when you're on the right side of it it's a much better day," Jones said.

"Hopefully we can have a good run in the Top Ten Shootout, we'll be on reused, but pretty stoked to be there at the moment."

Team owner Brad Jones was especially proud of his son's efforts, saying: "I feel like his last few races really since Tasmania, there's been glimpses of speed, but it's always hard to see, and it's so close."

"The relief of the pressure for him to end up in the top couple is fantastic, and he works really, really hard at his job and he cops plenty of flack.

"It's great to see him up near the top of the timesheet."

The Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout begins at 11:35am ACST/12:05pm AEST, before Race 19 begins at 2:40pm ACST/3:10pm AEST.