Sunday, 13 April 2025:
 | | Anton De Pasquale. | |
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Brodie Kostecki will start the weekend's final Supercars race in New Zealand at the front of the grid after converting his provisional pole into the real deal.
The Dick Johnson Racing star was the last driver to have a solo crack at Taupo International Motorsport Park and took out Sunday's top-10 shootout with a lap time of one minute and 25.705 seconds.
He will share the front row of the 200km finale with Team 18 driver Anton De Pasquale.
Kostecki had earlier set a lap record of 1m 25.630s to claim provisional pole, shaving 0.0703 off Kiwi racer Matt Payne's record time from qualifying on Saturday.
De Pasquale was just 0.1677 seconds slower than Kostecki, joking Team 18's appointment as General Motors' new testing partners had gifted him "instant speed".
Team 18 will take over as the homologation team for the Chevrolet Camaro after Triple Eight announced its move to rival manufacturer Ford in February.
Wellington-born Ryan Wood was third-fastest, while his Walkinshaw Andretti United teammate Chaz Mostert had to settle for a start in ninth.
Grove driver Payne, the front-runner to win the meeting's Jason Richards Memorial Trophy, will start sixth. New Zealander Richards raced for Brad Jones before his death due to cancer in 2011.
Payne's rookie teammate Kai Allen impressed in his top-10 shootout debut to clinch a start in seventh.
Fellow Kiwi driver Andre Heimgartner qualified eighth.
A difficult weekend continued for Triple Eight stars Will Brown and Broc Feeney.
After sub-par results for the competition heavyweights in the opening two sprints on Saturday, Feeney qualified in 20th in Sunday's earlier session and Brown scraped 18th by just 0.0029 seconds to survive the first portion of qualifying.
Feeney, who had been second in the running, was eliminated after pitting late in the session instead of laying another lap.
Series leader Brown did not improve enough, qualifying in 12th.
His Tickford rival Cam Waters, second in the standings, squandered his chance to make the shootout, qualifying in 18th after locking up his wheels and running off-track at turn 11.
The 10th race of the Supercars season gets underway at 1.05pm (AEST).
RACE 10 TOP-10 SHOOTOUT:
1. Brodie Kostecki (Dick Johnson Racing)
2. Anton De Pasquale (Team 18)
3. Ryan Wood (Walkinshaw Andretti United)
4. Cam Hill (Matt Stone Racing)
5. Thomas Randle (Tickford Racing)
6. Matt Payne (Grove Racing)
7. Kai Allen (Grove)
8. Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing)
9. Chaz Mostert (WAU)
10. James Golding (PremiAir Nulon Racing)
