Waters tops Shootout, Mostert clouts wall

Cam Waters has topped the Sunday ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout at the NTI Townsville 500, which featured an incident for Chaz Mostert.

Waters, who was second in qualifying earlier on Sunday, pieced together a clean lap to take his second pole of 2023.

The Tickford Racing driver will share the front row for Race 17 with Matt Stone Racing’s Jack Le Brocq, who won in Darwin last month.

Provisional pole man Brodie Kostecki, who lost the series lead on Saturday, will share the second row with Waters’ teammate Thomas Randle.

The flashpoint of the session was an incident for Mostert, who picked up steering damage after he clouted the wall between Turns 2 and 3.

Mostert, who qualified third, clipped the concrete on driver’s left exiting the Turn 2 hairpin and aborted his lap.

The #25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang will start 10th for Sunday’s race alongside championship leader Will Brown, who won Saturday’s 88-lapper.

"The track was massively different compared to qualy," Waters said.

"Qualy had heaps of grip, heaps of fun. She was pretty loose then. Just tried to hit my marks to do a nice, clean lap.

"I knew if I had everything half okay, I'd be in the mix. Car's great over one lap, we need to make sure it's good over 88."

The Shootout was affected by slippery track conditions caused by entertainment demonstration runs, with several drivers complaining about track conditions.

Brown (#9 Coca-Cola Camaro) was first man out and clocked a 1:15.2726s, which was a whopping 2.4s slower than Kostecki’s provisional pole time.

Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford duo Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale improved into the 1:14s, with Andre Heimgartner slower than both Mustangs.

Randle laid down an impressive 1:14.6363s before he was displaced by Le Brocq’s 1:14.5827s, albeit by just 0.0536s.

Mostert inspects the damage

David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang) clocked a 1:14.7131s to slot into third, before Mostert made his error.

It left Waters and Kostecki to deny Le Brocq, and the former turned in a clean lap — a 1:14.4184s — to leave Kostecki with it all to do.

The erstwhile championship leader — who finished 19th on Saturday — bowled a wide at Turn 2, but managed to secure a second row start.

It helped Waters score a fourth Townsville pole, drawing level with Shane van Gisbergen and Mark Winterbottom.

Only Jamie Whincup (seven) and Scott McLaughlin (six) have more poles at the Reid Park Street Circuit.

Brown will carry a 43-point lead over teammate Kostecki into Race 17, with Red Bull Ampol Racing's Broc Feeney, who is third, to start 13th.

Shane van Gisbergen will start his 500th Supercars race from 25th and last after he made a mistake on his flyer in qualifying.

The NTI Townsville 500 will conclude with Race 17, at 88 laps in length, at 2:40pm AEST on Sunday.