Supercars 2024: Qualifying results from Darwin Triple Crown, James Golding claims provisional pole
A “surprised” James Golding claimed the fastest time in qualifying ahead of the opening race of the Darwin Triple Crown, now targeting a breakthrough Supercars win.
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PremiAir Racing’s James Golding is targeting a breakthrough Supercars win after surprising himself to claim provisional pole for the opening race of the Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway.
Leading home a quintet of Camaros on Friday, Golding put his Chevrolet in prime position for Saturday’s top-10 shootout after he blitzed the field in the Darwin heat in qualifying.
Golding, who was also second fastest in opening practice, topped the session ahead of Matt Stone Racing’s Nick Percat and Team 18 veteran Mark Winterbottom, who claimed a drought-breaking victory in Darwin last year.
Triple Eight young gun Broc Feeney and his series-leading teammate and opening practice pacesetter Will Brown rounded out the qualifying top five.
Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton De Pasquale, David Reynolds, Golding’s PremiAir teammate Tim Slade, Cam Waters and Andre Heimgartner also booked their spot in the shootout, but Walkinshaw Andretti United star Chaz Mostert was the big qualifying casualty.
After taking his first Gen3 win last round in Perth, Mostert, who sits third in the Supercars championship, will start from 22nd on the grid for Saturday’s opening race.
In a qualifying shock, Golding even surprised himself with his speed and hoped he could convert his one-lap pace in the shootout and then the first of two 48-lap races.
The 28-year-old is yet to claim a pole position in Supercars with his best qualifying finish to date third at Newcastle last year and his best finish fourth at the same round.
“(I’m) certainly a little bit surprised, the last couple of rounds we have struggled a bit, but this morning we rolled out of the truck pretty comfortable,” Golding said after qualifying.
“We made a few tweaks to the car, nothing major, just to get it in the window …..it was a pleasure to drive and just really comfortable to push to the limit without making a mistake so thanks to the whole team for all their hard work.
“The last couple of years have been pretty tough, so credit to them. It’s baby steps, we tick off each box as we get to it, but it’s a great step in the right direction.
“Obviously there is a long way to go this weekend with racing, but we have got a fast car over one lap and we can now focus on building a good race car for the rest of the weekend.
“It’s definitely (about) consistency for us, we have had strong results in both qualifying and racing, but we haven’t strung enough together in both qualifying and racing on the same day to really get that good result.
“We’re still improving so we have just got to try to put it all together on the day.”
Winterbottom claimed an emotional and drought-breaking victory at Hidden Valley last year when he secured his first race win in seven years.
The 2015 series champion’s first race win since 2016 also delivered Team 18 its first victory in Supercars.
The 43-year-old said he had been buoyed by his early pace as he chased a repeat of his 2023 Darwin success.
“We rolled out the truck really quick. It was really quick,” Winterbottom said.
“My car is quite easy to drive at the moment, which is good, but to go faster you need to lean on it a bit more, which could be a mistake or could be fast, who knows?
“There’s always something left in the tank, I’m sure.
“Tomorrow is going to be a good day, we’re all going to be battling for the lead, the top-10 shootout has still got to play out … there is still a lot to go.”
In a tough qualifying session for WAU, Mostert’s teammate Ryan Wood was also 23rd fastest.
The two-time Bathurst 1000 champion said the team had not come to grips with the tyre compound, but backed the squad to rebound.
“Probably a bit of our concern coming into the weekend was the super soft tyre, and clearly our cars are not in the window with that,” Mostert said.
“Thankful that tomorrow we’ve got a practice session before we go into the race, obviously gutted not to be in the top-10 after what we just finished in Perth.
“But these are the days that you try to build a championship. So, yeah, when you have your bad ones, it’s how you bounce back. We’ve got an awesome crew here. We’ll work extremely hard tonight.”
De Pasquale and Waters were the only two Fords in the top 10 in qualifying on a day when Supercars confirmed its plans for engine testing in the United States.
The series will conduct independent engine testing at the AVL facility in Plymouth, Michigan, after the Sydney SuperNight round.
It is the latest parity testing to be conducted after wind tunnel testing was held in the US late last year, following a debut Gen3 season beset by parity dramas.
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Originally published as Supercars 2024: Qualifying results from Darwin Triple Crown, James Golding claims provisional pole
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