Townsville Supercars: McLaughlin flies to ninth season pole

The Kiwi extended the trend of lowering his own lap record in each qualifying session, becoming the first man ever to break the 1m12s barrier with a stunning 1m11.990s.

The lap gave him pole by more than two tenths over Shane van Gisbergen.

“I’ve been trying to get an 11 all weekend, so to get it in the Shootout is fantastic,” said McLaughlin. “I knew I had to get it right, and it was fantastic. I hope we can go out and get another win today.”

Van Gisbergen was the biggest winner in terms of gains compared to qualifying, jumping from sixth to second with a 1m12.258s.

“I’m happy to be up there,” said the Triple Eight driver. “It’s a pretty good improvement from qualifying too, the car was awesome – but that’s a big gap to Scotty.”

David Reynolds made up one spot compared to qualifying with the third best time, thanks to Prodrive Racing pair Chaz Mostert and Mark Winterbottom going backwards.

Winterbottom ran third last but dropped back to fifth behind Jamie Whincup, while Mostert ran second last and was just sixth quickest.

Rick Kelly made up three spots after running first, edging past Cam Waters and Garth Tander.

Jason Bright, meanwhile, dropped from eighth to 10th after spinning at the last corner on his Shootout lap.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'11.9908
2	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	1'12.2588	0.2680
3	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VF	1'12.2799	0.2891
4	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	1'12.3342	0.3434
5	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'12.4297	0.4389
6	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'12.4515	0.4607
7	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'12.6394	0.6486
8	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'12.6656	0.6748
9	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	1'12.6848	0.6940
10	56	Jason Bright	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'28.9963	17.0055