After not setting a time in Friday practice, Shae Davies was the fastest driver in Saturday’s Boost Mobile Super Trucks qualifying for the Darwin Triple Crown.
Davies led the way with a fastest lap time of 1:32.94 on his seventh of eight laps to notch his first career Fastest Qualifier title and bonus point. Paul Morris and Paul Weel, who respectively placed second and first in practice, tailed at 1:32.97 and 1:33.3714. Morris turned the most laps of the ten with nine and set the best sector time on his final qualifying lap (30.3479 seconds in Sector 1), but came up short of the pole. Due to a field inversion, the trio will start at the back for Race #1 later in the day.
“POLE!!! Points in the bag!” Davies posted in an Instagram Story. He will seek his second straight win and third of his career. “Reverse grid for this afternoons race!”
Of the four drivers running their first races of the season, Trav Milburn was the quickest in fifth; Greg Gartner was seventh, Rob Whyte eighth, and Nash Morris ninth. Gartner topped the quartet in practice in fourth, while his qualifying run saw him spin into the grass.
Russell Ingall placed fourth in his first SST qualifying session since the 2019 season finale at Gold Coast; he did not qualify at Tasmania in April as he was a backup driver for Nash Morris. Other qualifiers included Shaun Richardson in sixth and Dave Casey in tenth. Casey had spent the previous night at Hidden Valley Raceway‘s drag strip, where he and Davies conducted one-on-one drag races in stadium trucks.
During the session, Davies, Gartner, Richardson, Whyte, and Paul Morris spent time on pit road to make adjustments to their trucks before rejoining the track.
Race #1 is scheduled for later in Saturday at 12:55 PM ACST. Two more races will take place on Sunday.
Qualifying results
Position | Number | Driver | Best Time | Fastest Lap | Margin | Laps |
1 | 88 | Shae Davies | 1:32.9426 | 7 | Leader | 8 |
2 | 67 | Paul Morris | 1:32.9757 | 9 | + .0331 | 9 |
3 | 50 | Paul Weel | 1:33.3714 | 5 | + .4288 | 7 |
4 | 39 | Russell Ingall | 1:34.6426 | 5 | + 1.7000 | 7 |
5 | 70 | Trav Milburn | 1:34.7221 | 4 | + 1.7795 | 6 |
6 | 12 | Shaun Richardson | 1:34.7922 | 8 | + 1.8496 | 8 |
7 | 410 | Greg Gartner | 1:34.7991 | 6 | + 1.8565 | 8 |
8 | 11 | Rob Whyte | 1:35.5179 | 7 | + 2.5753 | 8 |
9 | 94 | Nash Morris | 1:36.2073 | 5 | + 3.2647 | 6 |
10 | 121 | Dave Casey | 1:37.7284 | 5 | + 4.7858 | 7 |