THERE was no shortage of surprises during this afternoon’s Bathurst 1000 qualifying session, but none bigger than Dale Wood’s brilliant surge into third in the dying seconds of the afternoon.
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With less than a minute on the clock he commenced the last of his 14 laps in a session that was twice interrupted by red flags, but he made it count to fly into third and secure an all-Holden top-three heading into tomorrow’s shootout.
He was 0.6311 seconds behind Fabian Coulthard’s new lap record.
“When you’re in the car you don’t really appreciate the clock winding down. I left the [pit] exit with about three minutes left and only just made it to the line in time to start that last lap,” he said.
“I wasn’t happy with how I’d gone yesterday [Thursday], but to speak to the other boys and hear that they are having the same problems was refreshing.
“The car responded really well to small changes.”
When questioned about whether he believed he could be in such a position having come into the round ranked 22nd in the Championship and with only one top-three race finish to his name, Wood gave an insight into his year.
“You shouldn’t be in the sport if you don’t have any intent of running up the front,” he said.
“But it has been a tough season, there has been some soul searching and to turn it around like this just shows that you have to keep your head down and keep going.
“Over the top of the circuit there were areas where I felt I hadn’t committed as much as I could, but the last lap was how I’d always hoped and imagined it would happen.”
There was plenty of interest all through the qualifying order.
Holden clearly had the best of the manufacturers’ battle with six cars in the top 10.
After the huge bombshell announced on Thursday that the company would be pulling its support from the category, Ford boasted two cars in the top 10 via Mark Winterbottom (fourth) and Jack Perkins in seventh.
Volvo were constantly near the top of the charts thanks to Scott McLaughlin and he will be the fifth-last car onto the track for the shootout.
James Moffat ensured that there will be a Nissan in the mix as well, qualifying eighth.
Team-wise, Brad Jones Racing has plenty to crow about with Coulthard, Wood and Jason Bright all inside the top seven.
