Bates takes pole for Bathurst 1000 ahead of Kostecki

Zach Bates, Chevrolet and Matt Stone Racing will start from pole position in Sunday’s Bathurst 1000 after a dramatic Top 10 Shoot Out on Saturday evening.

A year after he made his Bathurst debut as a co-driver in a wildcard the 22-year-old from Canberra, who qualified fastest in the Qualifying session on Friday, stormed around the Mount Panorama circuit in 2m04.2062s, to place the Chevrolet Camaro he will share with Aaron Seton firmly on pole position.

Bates ended the single-car session 0.2850s clear of long-time Bathurst qualifying king Brodie Kostecki. The Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang pilot was trying to create Bathurst history, to break the record of three straight pole positions, held by Bathurst legends Peter Brock and Allan Moffat.

“I had a good feeling throughout the week but I didn’t think it would get this far,” he said after his first-ever Supercars Shoot Out.

“Brodie laid down an absolute heater, I knew that was going to be a challenge. It’s been a tough year, it takes a lot of sacrifice to get here, from my whole family.”

The track conditions Saturday afternoon were not ideal for fast times, after heavy overnight rain washed away a lot of the rubber built up over the previous two days, and made worse after a competitor in the previous Super2 support race left a trail of power steering fluid across the middle sector.

Kostecki was a man happy with second, after his car underwent a transaxle change after the final Practice session.

“Congratulations to Zach Bates, I love a good underdog story,” said Kostecki.

“The best I could do at the moment! I feel like we’re in a good spot.”

Kostecki is the sole Ford Mustang in the top five on the grid. Third fastest was Anton De Pasquale in the Team 18 Chevrolet, who was looking for his first pole position at The Mountain. The Melbourne driver said he “had an average Turn 1, an average Turn 2 and then the car came alive.” He will be ahead of the two Erebus Motorsport Chevrolets, Cooper Murray ahead of Jack Le Brocq.

Sixth fastest, and the second-best Ford driver, was Will Brown in the Triple Eight entry. The 2024 Supercars champion looked to be hanging on to his Mustang, in particular when he saved a slide in the middle of the 140mph McPhillamy Park corner at the top of the Mountain.

Seventh fastest was another Chevrolet driver, Jayden Ojeda for PremiAir Racing, who ran wide at the first corner and, in his own words, “I had to do a Scandinavian Flick to get it into The Dipper”

Veteran Team 18 driver David Reynolds was eighth fastest ahead of the two Fords of James Golding (Blanchard Racing Team) and defending race winner Matt Payne (Grove Racing).

After two Practice sessions earlier in the day, which are the best indication of pace over a longer run, there looks to be as many as 10 cars that could be in contention for the podium Sunday. In the first session for the co-drivers only, Jarrod Hughes became the third different Erebus Motorsport Chevrolet driver to top a session, and Golding topped the second after a Shoot-Out lap simulation in the BRT Mustang.

The race looks to be a fascinating proposition, with previous expectations of rain giving way to a forecast for a clear and warm day. It is expected that many of the teams will start the race, the prospect of Seton, the grandson of a former Bathurst winner and son of a Australian Touring Car champion, taking on Kostecki’s co-driver Todd Hazelwood, who won the race in 2024.

The Bathurst 1000 airs live on Saturday night on RACER Network and RACER+, with coverage starting at 8:00pm ET.