Kostecki flies, Triple Eight flops in Townsville qualifying

Brodie Kostecki has soared to pole for Friday's NTI Townsville 500 sprint, with Triple Eight Race Engineering suffering a double blow in Boost Mobile Qualifying.

While Kostecki and his Shell V-Power Racing Team had cause for celebration with pole, championship leader Broc Feeney and Will Brown missed Q2, and only managed 14th and 20th.

It was a shock slump for Triple Eight and Feeney in particular, with the points leader second in both morning practice sessions, and now unlikely to extend his five-race win streak.

Kostecki, who claimed two poles in Taupō in April, will share the Race 20 front row with Tickford Racing's Cam Waters, with Will Davison and Matt Payne completing an all-Ford top four.

"I was pretty stoked with the car then, I wasn't really sure where we were in practice, really hard to tell coming in with tyres from previous events," said Kostecki, who is chasing his first win for DJR, and the team's first since Townsville 2023.

"The car felt dialled on the first run of qualy, and also at the end of P2 as well, just didn't do a very good job. George [Commins] made a few demon tweaks towards the end of a used tyre run, and this Shell V-Power Mustang was really put in the window for that green tyre run."

"We've been pretty horrific the last couple of rounds. Honestly, on the Sunday after Darwin where I made a little bit of a boo-boo running off, we really got the car back in a window and I was quite happy with it after the race, and it's translated to here as well which is great to see."

Under overcast skies, all 24 cars rolled out for Q1, with drivers from 11th through 24th knocked out.

Feeney opened up with a 1:13.4510s, which was immediately beaten by Thomas Randle's 1:13.4411s. Kai Allen went even quicker with a 1:13.3627s, with Anton De Pasquale and Kostecki rounding out the top five.

Erebus fired its first shot, Jack Le Brocq and Cooper Murray going first and third, and Aaron Cameron sixth. Allen, Chaz Mostert and Bryce Fullwood all jumped into the top five, with Brown 21st and Ryan Wood 24th.

Through the first runs, Le Brocq, Randle, Allen, Mostert, Fullwood, Murray, Cameron, De Pasquale and Waters filled a surprise top 10, with Kostecki 11th and Payne 12th.

Drivers improved on their second push laps as they returned, Kostecki going fastest in Sector 1, and Payne in Sector 2. In a wild flurry of times, Kostecki beat Fullwood by 0.070s, with Mostert, Waters, Wood, De Pasquale, Le Brocq, Randle, Davison and Payne clinching Q2 berths.

Feeney was unable to clinch a Q2 spot, ending up 14th, with Brown slumping to 20th ahead of Murray, Nick Percat, Jaxon Evans and Macauley Jones.

Randle kicked off Q2 with a 1:13.0572s, with Waters behind on a 1:13.2573s. Davison split the two Tickford Mustangs, with De Pasquale missing out on provisional pole by just 0.0003s.

Le Brocq lit up the time sheets through the first two sectors, and despite locking up and running long at Turn 11, clocked a 1:12.8111s to claim provisional pole.

However, Le Brocq was only good enough for sixth, with Kostecki, Waters, Davison, Payne and De Pasquale all finding time. Randle, Fullwood, Mostert and Wood rounded out the top 10.

The 35-lap Race 20 will commence at 3:40pm.