Will Brown grabs Sandown pole
Will Brown ensured that he will line-up on pole for the 2024 running of the Sandown 500 after leading the way in the top ten shootout for the first enduro event of the Supercars season.
On a day where wet conditions would provide plenty of challenges through final practice and into qualifying itself, Brown earned top spot on the grid for the second successive season in the shootout, which was held when the weather had improved somewhat from earlier in the day.
The first phase of qualifying had been interrupted by a an off for Aaron Love at the Esses, and ended with Broc Feeney on top of the pile to leave him as the last man running in the shootout itself.
Will Davison and David Reynolds were amongst the fancied runners to be knocked out at the first stage, with Nick Percat the unlucky driver to just miss out in eleventh after he was pushed out by just 0.0338.
Anton De Pasquale was first man to run in the shootout and laid down an early marker of 1:10.3564 – three seconds quicker than he had managed in the first phase of qualifying to indicate how much conditions had improved.
It wasn’t without a scare however, with De Pasquale almost looping his Ford before his quick lap had even got underway.
As the drivers behind went out to try and beat De Pasquale’s time, the following trio all failed to knock the Ford man off the top until Brown went out fifth and managed to go a tenth of a second quicker.
It looked like he was then going to beaten by Waters when he followed as sixth man out but when he lost time in the final sector, it meant he dropped behind the Triple Eight man and instead had to settle for second.
Ryan Wood took a high-speed trip across the gravel at the Esses to knock him out of contention for pole, and when Matt Paye, Chaz Mostert and Feeney all failed to match Brown’s time, he earned him a second successive Sandown pole.
With main game drivers leading the field away in Sunday’s race, Brown will therefore start the #87 he will share with Scott Pye.
“I just put a clean lap together and I’m stoked to get the Boost Mobile Pole Award, I’m just ecstatic,” Brown said. “It’s been a tough round for us the last couple, we got podiums, but I really wanted to get another pole this year and try and win this weekend.
”It was tough, between one and two there was a lot of water on the road, and even this last sector down here, there was a lot of water to try and finish your lap.
“Every time I went in there I was just thinking ‘Don’t stuff it up here, don’t stuff it up’ and maximise where it wasn’t wet.”
