Broc Feeney scores crucial Gold Coast 500 pole
Feeney edges out reigning champion Chaz Mostert
Both drivers lucky to survive high-commitment laps
The 2026 Repco Supercars Finals Series will start as the 2025 Finals finished, with a Broc Feeney vs Chaz Mostert battle off the front row.
Both drivers left nothing on the table in Saturday's Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout on the Gold Coast, with Feeney edging out the reigning champion to claim a popular home pole.
Both drivers left bits of their cars scattered throughout the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, with their commitment rewarded with prime position for the opening 85-lapper.
With rain approaching, there were question marks over whether or not it would arrive before all 10 drivers had completed their run, with Cam Waters the first on track.
Track conditions were also substantially different day-on-day, with overnight and early morning rain washing the track clean. Waters' initial benchmark was well down on Friday's provisional qualifying times, a 1:12.5155s some three and half seconds off Anton De Pasquale's provisional pole.
Kai Allen was the next on track, and was lucky to survive a wild ride through the first chicane, with an awkward bobble over the kerb at Turn 2. That moment alone cost Allen the best part of a second, a 1:13.5794s all he could muster.
Thomas Randle was the first of two drivers out of championship equations to take on the Shootout, and found three tenths on his Tickford teammate Waters through the Beach Chicane, moving the marker to a 1:12.2485s.
Will Brown entered with a two-place grid penalty hanging over his head after impeding Jack Le Brocq on Friday, and he took a different approach by attacking the final sector on his out lap. While he started his lap with a tidy run through the first chicane, he didn't quite have the ultimate pace that Randle had, though a mega final sector dropped his deficit to just 0.0061s on a 1:12.2546s.
The first of Toyota's three representatives was Ryan Wood, who flew through the first sector to go fastest of all, but triggered a kerb hop at the final part of the Beach Chicane, consigning him to the rear of the top 10.
Wood's Walkinshaw TWG Racing teammate Mostert then wrung the neck of the #1 Toyota, clipping the Turn 9 tyre bundle at the Beach Chicane, and then dragging along the wall at the exit of Turn 13.
However, whilst it was wild, it was fast, a 1:11.2623s coming as a surprise to even Mostert himself, who quipped that his lap felt "terrible" despite putting almost a second on the field.
As Andre Heimgartner rolled out for his sighting lap, sprinkles of rain began to fall, though the Brad Jones Racing spearhead was armed with a brand new set of tyres. The second of the Finals interlopers comfortably slotted into second on a 1:11.6223s.
Championship leader Matt Payne could only muster third on a 1:11.8699s, not helped by an awkward run through the Beach Chicane that saw the #19 Penrite Ford crossed up on several occasions.
It was going to take something seriously committed to knock off Mostert, and Feeney delivered that with flying runs through both chicanes, and also grazing the wall at Turn 11. Feeney moved the marker forward to a 1:11.1369s, leaving just Anton De Pasquale standing between the local hero and a second pole on home soil.
De Pasquale went within a tenth of Feeney to the first sector, however the #18 Chevrolet was unable to match Feeney's magnificent middle sector, though De Pasquale still secured a personal best Gold Coast start of third.
Heimgartner will join De Pasquale on the second row in a great performance for BJR, with Payne, Randle, Brown, Waters, Allen, and Wood rounding out the top 10. Brown will be demoted to ninth on the grid with his penalty.
The opening race of the 2026 Repco Supercars Finals Series will commence at 3:15pm local time/4:15pm AEDT.
