AFTER 16 years of trying, Lee Holdsworth put himself in his best position yet to claim the Peter Brock Trophy on day two of this year's Bathurst 1000.
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He did it by nabbing provisional pole position for Sunday's 161-lap epic.
In the traditional fashion of the Great Race, the qualifying result was unexpected for many - with rain a key factor at Mount Panorama.
The Truck Assist Mustang driver recorded his hot lap late in the session, before light rain hit Mount Panorama, effectively ending any other drivers' hopes of toppling Holdsworth's time.
Here is what Holdsworth, as well as others who tackled Mount Panorama on day two, had to say:
Lee Holdsworth, #5 Truck Assist Racing
"We've still got the Shootout obviously tomorrow, but this is my first time with a provisional pole at Bathurst," said Holdsworth.
"I'm just stoked for Truck Assist Racing, Tickford Racing, Sammy [Scaffidi, engineer] has done an awesome job, my little mate Caruse [co-driver Michael Caruso] has been so good to me, I'm just enjoying myself.
"It takes a bit of confidence and sometimes that confidence takes a while to build back up, but it's certainly there now."
Scott McLaughlin, #12 Shell V Power Racing
"I was ready to go for qualifying, and I was rubbing my hands together. I got to McPhillamy, and it started bucking down," he said
"I went over the hill, and it was loose on the slicks, so I said to the boys we'll bring it in and have another crack tomorrow. Bring on the shootout."
Fabian Coulthard, #12 Shell V Power Racing
"We're just always tuning the car and trying to make it a bit nicer. You need a car that is predictable so you know what you have when you get to the corner You reply a lot on confidence around here," he said
"It's great to have two cars in the shootout, and it's great to have a lap to yourself around here.
"I think our race car isn't too bad, we learnt a couple of tricks there in qually which I think will aid us in the race. Mark's [engineer] been awesome and we've always had direction and know where we are going and what we will do next. It's a team effort, and we're all doing our bit. We're now focused on the shootout."
Cameron Waters, #6 Monster Energy Racing
"It was a pretty strong day for us, Wilbur obviously started the day off well for us being quickest in the co-driver session, and we just kept working on the race car for most of my session," he said.
"The car's quick, we did our best lap on our second run, and waited to go out at the end, then obviously the rain came and that was that. But we made the Shootout which was the main goal, and we have a good, straight car. We'll tune up some little things tomorrow, then put it on the line when it counts."
David Reynolds, #9 Penrite Racing
"We didn't find our best direction until qualifying today and it was probably just a little too late. I think if we found what we did a little earlier then we really would have been able to fine tune it," he said.
"Obviously, I missed out on putting down a lap at the end so I think we could have made the 10 had we had done that lap but it's not unusual for something like what happened to happen at Bathurst.
"I'm still optimistic and confident for Sunday, we're not starting from as far up as we would like but it's not bad and if our race car can be fast on Sunday then we are in with a chance for a good result."
Anton De Pasquale, #99 Penrite Racing
"The goal for Friday is to make the shootout - it's the coolest and best session of the year to be a part of. We haven't missed one here yet so it's really cool to make it again," he said.
"We weren't in the best position after practice, so we had to work pretty hard for it. You have 40-minutes so it's cool to go out on new tyres every time and build yourself up and go faster and faster. My lap wasn't the world's best but it was pretty good and we'll work overnight to make it better tomorrow for the Shootout when it really matters."
Chaz Mostert #25 and Bryce Fulwood, #2 Walkinshaw Andretti United
James Courtney, #44 Boost Mobile Racing
"It was good to make the shootout, not by much but we're in and that's all that matters," he said.
"The team's doing a great job, the car overall feels quite good, Broc's getting good mileage and laps under his belt and driving real maturely, so far so good. We're chasing some little things and have had some minor hiccups, but we're happy with the results we've had and I'm looking forward to tomorrow."
Jack Le Brocq, #55 Supercheap Auto Racing
"The day was okay, we worked a bit on our race car this morning, just trying to tune it up a bit, and for qualifying I felt we had a car that could be in the mix for the shootout," he said.
"Unfortunately we went out for that last run and the skies opened up at the top of the hill, which was no fun. We'll start 15th, but the race car feels pretty good, Moff's driving great, so we'll keep improving the car tomorrow and look to have a good one on Sunday."
Jamie Whincup, #888 Red Bull Holden Racing Team
"It never ceases to amaze me how gnarly this place is in qualifying. The big thing I took out of that was just how nuts it is," he said.
"These tyres feel quite grippy and I've never gone over Skyline as fast as I have then. Then having to do it four times - you don't just go out there, do your lap and think, 'let's go have dinner and go home'. You've just got to do it and go again and find another tenth.
"It's crazy, the cars are so similar. There's so much in the driver and style. My style is good in some corners, but SVG is smashing me in other corners, so we just need to learn off each other to keep going faster."
Shane van Gisbergen, #97 Red Bull Holden Racing Team
"The qualifying session was awesome. Looking at the times everyone was so close which is pretty cool, and well done to Lee [Holdsworth], it's great to see him up there qualifying on top," he said.
"For us, we're just getting better and better, and our car overall is getting better and better too. We've had some really cool laps around here, and it would've been interesting to see what happened in that last run if it wasn't for the rain at the top of the mountain.
"Every run in qualifying we were sort of near the front, in that third or fourth position, and then popped up into second in that last run which was pretty cool. I'm looking forward to the shootout tomorrow."
André Heimgartner, #7 NED Racing
"It was a little disappointing not to get in the shootout this afternoon, but it doesn't have too much of an impact on the end result at this place so tomorrow we'll just concentrate on race setup and I think there'll be rain so we'll get a good idea of wet weather pace around here," he said.
"We'll also have a good amount of time to practice driver changes, pit stops and all that stuff which is critical for a good race come Sunday. At least now tomorrow is a little more relaxed, we can just focus on the race without having to continue to chase a qualifying setup so it's not too bad."
Rick Kelly, #15 Castrol Racing
"We had a little bit of work to do from yesterday, we had a car that was a little bit tail-happy so we needed to tidy that up and then build confidence back in Dale and I. Today was very much about building that confidence and I think we did that pretty well," he said.
"Qualifying didn't quite go our way, we had a messy first run, we then made a change to the car which put us back a little bit and used up some time which made our third run quite late in the session. That lap ended up being the time which was solid but wasn't a full attack lap, we really needed to do that banker lap and then build from there earlier in the session.
"I don't think we were quite there with setup but probably could probably have got close to the 10. Little bit disappointing walking away with that qualifying position because I think we're a bit better than that."
Tyler Everingham, #40 Garry Rogers Motorsport
Mark Winterbottom, #18 IRWIN Racing
"We qualified 18th this afternoon for the big race," Winterbottom said.
"We went in the wrong direction with our setup and detuned it, but at least we have more answers as we work to fine tune the IRWIN Commodore into a strong race car.
"We have lots to work on through the practice tomorrow, but James [Golding] and I will continue to work with our engineers to find a better race car balance for Sunday."
Scott Pye, #20 DEWALT Racing
"I'm pretty happy with qualifying," Pye said.
"We put a lot of effort during practice to focus on our race car, so to miss the shootout by less than a tenth of a second is a really promising result and it has put us in a good spot for Sunday.
"We were very close to the shootout and if we put more effort in to our one-lap speed that could have been different, but I certainly wouldn't change our plan at all throughout practice so far.
"We have put us in a good spot for the race, we have plenty of laps for Dean, we have done more than any other car during practice so in terms of race pace we're in a great position.
"I would have loved to have the track to myself for a couple of minutes, but the end goal hasn't changed and that's to finish well on Sunday, I think we've put us in a good position to do that."
