SHANE van Gisbergen has secured pole position for race one of the Newcastle 500 after clocking the fastest lap of the round in the Top 10 Shootout on Saturday.
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He was the first driver on track after qualifying in 10th position and recorded a lap time of 1:10.174.
The Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver said it was an unexpected result after only just sneaking into the shootout.
"Really surprising," he said.
"The car's been awesome all weekend. I'm stoked with that.
"They did a great job tuning it. I can't believe we went from 10th to the front."
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It will be an all-Kiwi front row in race one with DJR Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin grabbing second spot on the grid.
"I had fun on that lap. It was really enjoyable," he said.
"To get second from eighth, that's a win.
"Shane's really good around here. We always have good ding-dong battles in places like this."
Jamie Whincup went into the shootout as the fastest driver on track, having maintained his practice pace in Saturday morning's qualifying session to clock a 1:10.182.
The veteran driver said he suffered from a lack of grip during his shootout lap but still managed to steal third position.
"Just didn't quite have the grip," he said.
"Pushed as hard as I could, but the grip wasn't there. I can't complain, P3."
Cameron Waters will start in fourth, Anton de Pasquale fifth and Fabian Coulthard sixth.
Last year's race two winner Dave Reynolds said he would find it difficult in Saturday's race after only managing seventh place in the shootout.
James Courtney made an error coming into the hairpin and finished eighth, with Tim Slade and Lee Holdsworth to start ninth and tenth respectively.
The top 20 drivers were separated by less than a second in qualifying, which made for a tight squeeze into the shootout.
The likes of Chaz Mostert, Rick Kelly and Mark Winterbottom had all missed the cut and will start race one behind the top 10 drivers.
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