Brown takes blame for "balls-up" Bathurst 1000 qualifying crash

The Erebus driver made a costly error on his first run in qualifying today, sending his car into the turn 2 tyre barrier.

He was able to drive it back to the pits under its own steam, however it required significant running repairs before he could get going again.

The car was far from perfect after those repairs too, Brown only able to log the 17th fastest time, locking the car into that starting position for Sunday's race.

His teammate Brodie Kostecki, meanwhile, took provisional pole.

Speaking on the telecast after the session, Brown admitted that the crash was a "balls-up" after he tried to use third gear through the right-hander instead of second.

"It was just a balls-up, really, to be honest," he said.

"I just locked a front. I was running second [gear] in practice and I thought third would be a bit faster in quali, and I probably went in a bit hot and thought, 'shit, I'm not going to pull it up', and did the stupid thing of jumping on the brake more, locked it up and went straight ahead.

"Completely my fault. I'm really sorry to the team, they've done such a mega effort and got me back out there.

"I think the splitter was a little bit up or something; I was alright until I got to the tree and the high-speed stuff and then I would just lose heaps of time.

"Unfortunately I didn't make the 10 but it is a really long day non Sunday, so I'm sure we can claw our way back up thee.

"It was just a silly mistake and I paid the consequences."

Brown is confident his Bathurst 1000 hopes are still alive, though, based on the speed of the Erebus package and the unknowns of the 1000-kilometre race.

"We've got a really fast car, I've just got to not make any mistakes," he said.

"The car is fast, it's been fast in practice trim as well in the longer runs. I'm sure we can pick off a few. We'll just try and claw our way up throughout the first half of the day and see where we end up."