Former V8 Supercars champion Garth Tander has taken pole for the opening race of 
this weekend’s Clipsal 500 event in Adelaide, giving him the perfect platform to launch a successful defence of the race he won last year. It the TOLL Holden Racing Team driver’s first pole position of the season and his third on the shortened version of the former Grand Prix circuit.
Tander lapped quickest ahead of his nine rivals in the day’s top-ten shootout, finishing three-tenths quicker than current championship leader Jamie Whincup in the Team Vodafone Holden.
It was an all-Holden second row, with GRM’s Lee Holdsworth qualifying third-fastest ahead of Rick Kelly in the Jack Daniels Commodore.
The honour of the fastest Ford driver when to fifth-placed Mark Winterbottom, who headed a FPR trio ahead of team-mates Shane van Gisbergen and Will Davison.
Defending champion James Courtney finished up eighth-quickest – complaining of a lack of rear grip in his HRT Commodore, while Jason Bright and Paul Dumbrell were the slowest pair in the shootout session.
Dumbrell had actually been quickest of the entire 28-car field in the preceding 20-minute qualifying session that decides the make-up of the shootout and the grid order from eleventh place onwards, but the Bottle-O Racing Team driver made a mistake at the final corner on his single flying lap in the shootout.
The earlier qualifying session was also marred by a collision between Tander and Will Davison, which saw both cars enjoying a quick spin. Tander’s car underwent some hasty repairs in time for him to rejoin the track and take the most of his opportunities to clinch pole.
V8 Supercars Clipsal 500 Qualifying Results (Race 1):
| Driver | Team | Time | Laps | ||
| 1. | Garth Tander |  |
TOLL Holden Racing Team | 1:22.3830 | 1 |
| 2. | Jamie Whincup | |
Team Vodafone | 1:22:6217 | 1 |
| 3. | Lee Holdsworth | |
Fujitsu Racing GRM | 1:22:6771 | 1 |
| 4. | Rick Kelly | |
Kelly Racing | 1:22:7405 | 1 |
| 5. | Mark Winterbottom |  |
Orrcon Steel FPR | 1:22:7629 | 1 |
| 6. | Shane van Gisbergen | |
SP Tool Racing FPR | 1:22:8866 | 1 |
| 7. | Will Davison | |
Trading Post FPR | 1:23:0273 | 1 |
| 8. | James Courtney | |
TOLL Holden Racing Team | 1:23:3045 | 1 |
| 9. | Jason Bright | |
Team BOC | 1:23:4200 | 1 |
| 10. | Paul Dumbrell | |
The Bottle-O Racing Team | 1:31:9403 | 1 |
| 11. | Craig Lowndes | |
Team Vodafone | 1:22:0518 | 11 |
| 12. | Steven Johnson | |
Dick Johnson Racing | 1:22:0586 | 9 |
| 13. | Steve Owen | |
VIP Petfoods | 1:22:0686 | 11 |
| 14. | Jonathon Webb | |
Mother Energy Racing Team | 1:22:0797 | 11 |
| 15. | Tim Slade | |
Lucky 7 Racing | 1:22:1080 | 11 |
| 16. | Todd Kelly | |
Kelly Racing | 1:22:1757 | 11 |
| 17. | Jason Bargwanna | |
Team BOC | 1:22:1803 | 10 |
| 18. | Michael Caruso | |
Fujitsu Racing GRM | 1:22:2488 | 11 |
| 19. | Tony D’Alberto | |
Wilson Security Racing | 1:22:3035 | 12 |
| 20. | Fabian Coulthard | |
Huzzah Racing | 1:22:3075 | 10 |
| 21. | David Reynolds | |
Stratco Racing | 1:22:3169 | 11 |
| 22. | Russell Ingall | |
Supercheap Auto Racing | 1:22:3896 | 11 |
| 23. | Alex Davison | |
Irwin Racing | 1:22:3928 | 12 |
| 24. | Greg Murphy | |
Pepsi Max Crew | 1:22:4038 | 10 |
| 25. | James Moffatt | |
Dick Johnson Racing | 1:22:4125 | 12 |
| 26. | Warren Luff | |
Gulf Western Oil Racing | 1:22:7384 | 11 |
| 27. | Dean Fiore | |
Triple F Racing | 1:22:7758 | 12 |
| 28. | Karl Reindler | |
Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | 1:23:0861 | 11 |
* Top-10 starting order determined via a separate top-ten single-lap qualifying session
[Original images via Holden Racing Team]
Richard Bailey
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