A late effort sealed Kiwi teenager Matthew Payne his second career Porsche Carrera Cup Australia pole position in Townsville.
The Team New Zealand Porsche driver was sat in the lower reaches of the top 15 for most of the session, only to surge to provisional pole with a sublime lap three minutes from the chequered.
Then, when Aaron Love locked his inside front on his flying lap, Payne clinched the number one spot, and his second in succession.
What makes the pole even sweeter is that Payne has never raced on a street circuit until this weekend, and it is only the third round he has done in the car.
“Once we changed to the second set [of tyres], the track was a little bit clearer,” Payne said.
“Managed to pull the lap out and then sort of kept going, but the car was just amazing.”
Payne will start alongside Love, with Cameron Hill and Cooper Murray locking out the second row.
Payne’s first pole position was at a wet Tailem Bend circuit. However, his race was short lived when he was tangled up in an opening lap crash on the run to turn one.
Former Supercars champion Craig Lowndes qualified a notable tenth.
The first of three races this weekend begins at 3.45 pm NZT and is live on Sky Sport.
