Grove Racing’s Matt Payne during the Perth Super440. Image: InSyde Media
Payne beat Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney to top spot by 0.2182 for his fifth pole position of the season.
“Obviously you’re not really sure what’s going to happen on the super soft, because we haven’t run it all weekend,” said Payne.
“I went out there, did the best job I could straight away and felt it was probably enough.
“We sat (and didn’t do a second Q1 run) and made it through, which was good, and had the green tyre to go on with it.
“Not being able to tune the car (after qualifying due to parc ferme rules) is a little bit tricky.
“We could have done a few things then to make it a bit better but it’s obviously a compromise for later on.”
It was a marked improvement for Feeney, meanwhile, after he failed to make the top 10 in the preceding session.
He lamented his performance in the first qualifying, in which he was only 13th.
“It’s pretty frustrating because that first one, I absolutely blew it, locked a front at the last corner,” he said.
“I felt like all weekend I’ve had a shot at trying to get pole and then the first run on the super softs wasn’t as quick as we needed to save a set of tyres.
“On the re-use at the end there compared to the other re-use, we were really quick. But obviously Matt had a set of greens and go us.
“The car is really fast, I feel really competitive this weekend, that’s why I’m so gutted… when I have a car capable of pole and I blow it, I’m not happy.”
Payne scores Perth pole as four drivers penalised
Payne and Allen rolled out strong in part one, banking a 54.0462s and 54.1087s respectively.
So confident were they of advancing that they elected against a second run.
The risk ultimately paid off. Thomas Randle wound up quickest at the end of part one ahead of fellow Ford driver Feeney.
Brodie Kostecki was fourth ahead of Payne while Anton De Pasquale was the sole Chevrolet Camaro driver in the top 10.
Allen was sixth ahead of the top Toyota Supra of Chaz Mostert. The top 10 was completed by Cameron Waters, Rylan Gray and Andre Heimgartner.
Wood couldn’t convert his pace from the soft tyre to the super soft tyre. He was 11th and 0.0063s away from Heimgartner.
Once again, Will Brown missed the top 10 cut in 12th. That equalled his performance frmo the previous session.
Feeney set the pace initially in part two with a 54.4310s ahead of Gray, De Pasquale, Kostecki, Heimgartner and Mostert. The rest elected to leave their run late.
Randle was the first to beat Feeney’s benchmark on a 54.4108s, but the Triple Eight Mustang driver responded with a 54.2849s.
Payne once again proved he had the superior speed in the Grove Mustang, topping the timesheets with a 54.0667s to beat Feeney by a sizable two tenths.
Allen’s best lap took him to third while Randle was fourth in the end. Mostert qualified fifth ahead of Heimgartner while Waters, Gray and De Pasquale completed the top 10.
Race 1 of the Perth Super440 gets underway at 12:45pm AWST followed by Race 2 at 4:20pm AWST. Each of Saturday’s races are 50 laps (120km) long.
Results: Repco Supercars Championship Bosch Power Tools Perth Super440, Qualifying Race 2
Pos
Num
Driver
Team
Car
Lap
Diff
Gap
1
19
Matthew Payne
Grove Racing
Ford Mustang GT
54.0667
2
88
Broc Feeney
Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang GT
54.2849
0.2182
0.2182
3
26
Kai Allen
Grove Racing
Ford Mustang GT
54.3563
0.2896
0.0714
4
55
Thomas Randle
Tickford Racing
Ford Mustang GT
54.4108
0.3441
0.0545
5
1
Chaz Mostert
Walkinshaw TWG Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
54.4437
0.3770
0.0329
6
8
Andre Heimgartner
Brad Jones Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
54.5044
0.4377
0.0607
7
17
Brodie Kostecki
Dick Johnson Racing
Ford Mustang GT
54.5513
0.4846
0.0469
8
6
Cameron Waters
Tickford Racing
Ford Mustang GT
54.5561
0.4894
0.0048
9
38
Rylan Gray
Dick Johnson Racing
Ford Mustang GT
54.5804
0.5137
0.0243
10
18
Anton De Pasquale
Team 18
Chev Camaro ZL1
54.6223
0.5556
0.0419
Q1
11
2
Ryan Wood
Walkinshaw TWG Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
54.1783
0.1116
12
888
William Brown
Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang GT
54.2491
0.1824
0.0708
13
777
Declan Fraser
PremiAir Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
54.2918
0.2251
0.0427
14
7
James Golding
Blanchard Racing Team
Ford Mustang GT
54.3595
0.2928
0.0677
15
4
Jack Le Brocq
Matt Stone Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
54.3771
0.3104
0.0176
16
31
Jayden Ojeda
PremiAir Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
54.3807
0.3140
0.0036
17
96
Macauley Jones
Brad Jones Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
54.388
0.3213
0.0073
18
20
David Reynolds
Team 18
Chev Camaro ZL1
54.3997
0.333
0.0117
19
9
Jobe Stewart
Erebus Motorsport
Chev Camaro ZL1
54.4274
0.3607
0.0277
20
14
Cameron Hill
Brad Jones Racing
Toyota GR Supra A90
54.4371
0.3704
0.0097
21
11
Jackson Walls
Triple Eight Race Engineering
Ford Mustang GT
54.4652
0.3985
0.0281
22
10
Zach Bates
Matt Stone Racing
Chev Camaro ZL1
54.4887
0.4220
0.0235
23
99
Cooper Murray
Erebus Motorsport
Chev Camaro ZL1
54.5248
0.4581
0.0361
24
3
Aaron Cameron
Blanchard Racing Team
Ford Mustang GT
54.5826
0.5159
0.0578