KEY POINTS:
Holden hot shots Jason Richards and four-time winner Greg Murphy will start from a disappointing sixth place for today's Bathurst 1000 while two-time champion Rick Kelly has a lifeline after veteran team-mate Paul Radisich banged up their Toll HSV Dealer Team Commodore in a high-speed crash.
The all-Kiwi pairing of Richards and Murphy looked a real threat for the iconic race as Richards clocked an incredible 2m 6.9076s to top the practice charts in the morning session.
The time was the second-fastest ever around the mountain, Richards' team-mate Murphy setting the lap record of 2m 6.8594s in 2003.
However, they did not fare so well in last night's Top 10 shootout although, as many of the leading lights were quick to say afterwards, position on the grid at Bathurst can be meaningless.
"We're obviously very happy to start on pole but 10 laps into the race I'm not too sure whether anyone will care where we started," said Garth Tander, who leads the V8 Supercar championship and has pole today.
Radisich's crash saw the No 15 car scratched from today's big race, leaving Kelly without a drive.
But in bizarre scenes, the co-driver in HSV's No 16 entry, David Reynolds, was pulled out for "exceptional circumstances" leaving a spot free for Kelly to join regular fulltime team-mate Paul Dumbrell.
Reynolds has been on the drip this week battling gastroenteritis but still drove in the second-tier Fujitsu series race yesterday. In the end, the team deemed Reynolds would not be capable of completing his full stint in the gruelling 1000-kilometre event. Dumbrell and Kelly will start from fourth on the grid.
"I'm obviously stoked to be able to have a car but it's a hard one because my thoughts are still with Paul," Kelly said. "It's mixed emotions, to be honest."
Radisich's crash occurred in the earlier practice session, leaving the New Zealand driver with a broken ankle. The throttle stuck, causing the 46-year-old to clip the wall at about 180km/h before hammering the safety barrier head on.
Two years ago Radisich was involved in another serious crash at the mountain and had to be airlifted to hospital after being extracted from the wreckage. He also suffered a broken ankle then.
Reigning V8 Supercar champion ander and his five-time Bathurst winning team-mate Mark Skaife will start on pole. Tander set a time of 2m 07.2963s in the Top 10 shootout to hold off his fancied Ford rivals.
Joining them on the front of the grid will be Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards. Winterbottom's time was just over one-tenth slower.
The second row will feature Ford's James Courtney and David Besnard and then Dumbrell and Kelly.
Defending champions Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes will start from fifth for Ford as they attempt an historic third-straight title, which would make them only the fourth and fifth men to ever achieve the feat.
"It's not the smoothest lap I've done Hopefully Lowndesy's happy, " Whincup said.
- AAP