Supercars News: Adelaide qualifying abandoned after big accident
The make-up of the Adelaide Supercars final grid has been determined after Boost Mobile Qualifying at the VAILO Adelaide 500 was suspended and later declared following three crashes.
Richie Stanaway, Cameron Hill and David Reynolds all crashed at Adelaide’s infamous Turn 8 sweeper, with wall damage seeing the session suspended.
Championship leader Will Brown was fastest at the time of the stoppage, ahead of Cam Waters, Thomas Randle, Broc Feeney, James Courtney, Matt Payne, Aaron Love, Jaxon Evans, Macauley Jones and Bryce Fullwood.
Chaz Mostert, meanwhile, was 22nd.
The session was unable to be restarted before the cut-off time, but the session was suspended, not declared, leaving the door open for a possible resumption on Saturday.
Shortly afterwards, officials advised that the session had indeed been declared, leaving Brown on provisional pole.
Brown put himself under immediate pressure with a curb hop at his first attempt, with Randle doing the same. Feeney dropped in a 1:2+0.1913s, followed by Courtney (1:2+0.3687s) and Payne (1:20.3730s).
Brown returned serve and soared to the top with a 1:19.4425s, followed by Waters (1:19.8056s) and Randle (1:19.8548s) before vision cut to the dramatic Turn 8 incidents.
Stanaway, Hill and Reynolds all clipped the inside wall, firing them into the infamous Turn 8 concrete barriers.
Stanaway went in first, the Penrite Racing Ford catching air and dislodging the concrete barrier, with the New Zealander managing to return his damaged car.
Hill and Reynolds weren’t as lucky, the Matt Stone Racing driver careening into the same spot at Stanaway, and coming to rest on the run to Turn 9. Reynolds crashed just seconds later, with the TRADIE Beer Camaro sliding into Hill’s stricken SP Tools entry.
At the time of the stoppage, Brown led Waters, Randle, Feeney, Courtney, Payne, Love, Evans, Jones and Fullwood.
Off sequence, Mostert hadn’t fired a representative time, and sat 24th ahead of Golding before Hill and Reynolds lost their representative times.
Supercars will return on Saturday with Practice 3 at 10:30am local time/11:00am AEDT, followed by the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 1:05pm/1:35pm AEDT.
The Shootout will set the grid for the first 78-lap race of the weekend, Race 23, at 3:50pm local time/4:20pm AEDT.