DALE WOOD has charged to a repeat TAG Heuer pole award at Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin, 12 months on from his last pole position in the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship.
Wood banked a 1m06.6637s flyer in the 12-minute Equity One Pro session and then watched as key contenders tried but ultimately failed to beat his time.
It was Wood’s fifth Carrera Cup pole and comes as he brings a new sponsor into a milestone weekend, where he celebrates his 100th Carrera Cup race.
Jackson Walls came closest, the Objective Racing driver falling just 0.05 seconds short of scoring his first pole – though second remains his personal best qualifying performance in Carrera Cup.
Thomas Maxwell qualified third – just 0.06 seconds from pole – while Friday fast-man Dylan O’Keeffe was fourth.
The top four cars were split by just 0.09 seconds, the top 10 by 0.3 seconds and the top 15 by 0.55.
Co-title leader Max Vidau was the big loser from the session, the Round 1 runner-up electing on a two-run strategy that ultimately fell just short of working – the Tyrepower car ending up just 14th.
In the SP Tools Pro-Am class, Adrian Flack’s 1m07.6831 best came under fire from several contenders in their dedicated session, run before the Pro class cars.
Sam Shahin came closest, falling 0.15s from pole, while Dean Cook was next just 0.03 seconds further back.
Rodney Jane was fourth with the top three split by a tiny margin, while Tim Miles, Matt Belford, Daniel Stuttered and Marc Cini completing the Pro-Am runners.
Race 1 will be held on Saturday afternoon and will be shown live on Fox Sports 506, Kayo and the Seven Network.