ALL three Triple Eight Race Engineering cars made into into the top 10 shootout on Saturday, but it will be four-time winner Jamie Whincup who starts from the front row of the grid for the Bathurst 1000.
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Whincup, who was on provisional pole coming into the shootout, was the last to head out onto the track on Saturday afternoon.
He was facing an impressive 2:04.0589 that had just been set by Erebus’ David Reynolds, who had plucked top spot from his team mate, Anton de Pasquale.
Whincup was three-tenths behind Reynolds’ through the first sector, but picked up the pace through sectors two and three to clock a 2:04.0683, putting him second on the grid.
"I got a good lap in the shootout, the engineers did a good job, the car was fast, and I got the most out of it,” he said.
“The boy beside me (David Reynolds) was fast, there’s no other way to look at it. We did the best we could, and we were happy with second today.
“It’s a long day for us, practice feels like six hours ago and I feel like we’ve met everyone on the mountain, so just trying to get back into racing mode for the shootout was difficult. We are happy we got through our program today.”
Having seen both the highs and lows that the mountain can throw up, Whincup isn’t going to let his grid position define his race.
“This race is very hard to win, and also very easy to lose,” he said.
Whincup’s Triple Eight team mates, Shane van Gisbergan and Craig Lowndes, will start from positions four and nine after their efforts in the shootout.
The Bathurst 1000 will start at approximately 11.10am on Sunday.
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