» V8s Winton: Winterbottom on pole for Race 2

Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom took his and the team’s first pole position of the 2011 V8 Supercars Championship season in qualifying for the second race of this weekend’s Winton 300 round. It is his first pole position since the Symmons Plains round in November last year.

‘Frosty’ – who voices an Australian car in the upcoming Cars 2 animated feature by Disney/Pixar – clocked a 1:22.5338 on a semi-dry Winton track, less than 0.09 seconds quicker than yesterday’s race-winner and championship leader Jamie Whincup.

A brief shower hit the circuit before today’s twenty-minute qualifying session, and it became imperative for drivers to clock as many laps as possible, in the hope that the track would dry enough before the end of the session.

But the damp conditions still managed to catch out some drivers – Whincup, for example, ran off-track as he attempted to wrest provisional pole from Winterbottom.

Watch video highlights from today’s Race 2 qualifying session at Winton Raceway

Steven Johnson followed up his solid performance yesterday with another top-three qualifying result in qualifying, and he shares the second tow with TOLL HRT’s Garth Tander.

The third row is occupied by Michael Caruso and yesterday’s pole-sitter Craig Lowndes. The top ten is completed by David Reynolds, Jason Bright, Shane van Gisbergen and Tim Slade.

A suspected drivetrain failure saw Fabian Coulthard sidelined for the second half of the session, and he finished up 14th-fastest.

Yesterday’s second-placed finisher Lee Holdsworth will start 11th, while defending champion James Courtney had yet another torrid qualifying session and will start from 20th place.

Greg Murphy has his times excluded after stewards ruled that his Commodore was not fitted with the correct factory control wheels for the session.

Today’s 67-lap race starts at 1:05pm local time.

V8 Supercars Winton 300 Qualifying Results (Race 2):

	Driver	Entry / Team	Result
1.	Mark Winterbottom	Orrcon Steel / Ford Performance Racing	1:22.5338
2.	Jamie Whincup	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Race Engineering	+ 0.0888
3.	Steven Johnson	Jim Beam / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 0.1187
4.	Garth Tander	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 0.1333
5.	Michael Caruso	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 0.2010
6.	Craig Lowndes	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Race Engineering	+ 0.2185
7.	David Reynolds	Stratco Racing / Kelly Racing	+ 0.2806
8.	Jason Bright	Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing	+ 0.3136
9.	Shane van Gisbergen	SP Tools / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 0.3308
10.	Tim Slade	Lucky 7 / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 0.3353
11.	Lee Holdsworth	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 0.3555
12.	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 0.3617
13.	Alex Davison	Irwin / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 0.4519
14.	Fabian Coulthard	Bundaberg / Walkinsaw Racing	+ 0.4917
15.	Will Davison	Trading Post / Ford Performance Racing	+ 0.5646
16.	Tony D’Alberto	Wilson Security / Tony D’Alberto Racing	+ 0.5693
17.	James Moffat	Jim Beam / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 0.6759
18.	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 0.6828
19.	Paul Dumbrell	The Bottle-O Racing Team / Rod Nash	+ 0.7090
20.	James Courtney	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 0.8458
21.	Jonathon Webb	Mother Energy Racing Team / Tekno	+ 0.8472
22.	Jason Bargwanna	Jana Living / Brad Jones Racing	+ 0.8812
23.	Dean Fiore	Triple F Racing	+ 0.9829
24.	Russell Ingall	Supercheap Auto / Paul Morris Motorsport	+ 1.7390
25.	Steve Owen	VIP Petfoods / Paul Morris Motorsport	+ 1.2445
26.	Karl Reindler	Fair Dinkum Sheds / Brad Jones Racing	+ 1.3737
27.	Warren Luff	Gulf Western Oil Racing / Lucas Dumbrell	+ 2.0164
EXC.	Greg Murphy*	Pepsi Max Crew / Kelly Racing	excluded