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Mark Winterbottom - Source: Photosport -
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Ford driver Mark Winterbottom has continued his strong start to the V8 Supercar event on the Gold Coast by winning pole position for Saturday's opening 150km race.
Winterbottom, battling a dose of glandular fever, backed up his fast performance in Friday's qualifying session to top the timesheets in the top 10 shootout with a one minute, 50.933 second lap.
It means the Ford Performance Racing pilot will start the first 150km race on Saturday from pole position, ahead of Holden's Garth Tander, who clocked 1.51:227 to earn a front row spot on the grid.
"It was good, we got the lap there and the car felt pretty good," Winterbottom said.
"We're pretty happy with the lap."
Championship leader Jamie Whincup will start the race in third position, ahead of big mover Jason Bright, who climbed from ninth going into the top 10 shootout to start fourth.
Whincup's main series rival, Tander's teammate Will Davison, will start the race on the next row of the grid after qualifying fifth.
Ford's Jason Courtney will start the race in ninth position after hitting a tyre wall in his hot-lap, only avoiding a 10th place start after Holden veteran Russell Ingall's time was scratched when he cut a corner on his lap.
Despite his heavy crash, Courtney was confident of making the start for the race.
"It got weird in turn one and going into two we locked the rears," Courtney said.
"We'll be right to start, it's just cosmetic."
The first 150km event will be followed by another at the Surfers Paradise street circuit.
The grid for the second race will be decided by how the drivers finish in the first event.
