Bates beats Kostecki to Bathurst 1000 pole
The 22-year-old Supercars rookie topped the Mount Panorama shootout by 0.285 seconds, becoming the third rookie to claim Bathurst pole.
Zach Bates secured the front spot on the Bathurst 1000 grid with a 2:04.2062 lap in qualifying on 10 October. Brodie Kostecki finished second, missing out on a fourth successive pole at the event.
Bates was last onto the track for the shootout and beat Kostecki by 0.285 seconds. He will race alongside Aaron Seton in Matt Stone Racing's No.10 entry on 11 October.
Kostecki held the advantage after his run as the fifth driver out. Will Brown, David Reynolds and Anton De Pasquale were unable to better his time before Bates took pole.
The result puts Bates alongside Klaus Ludwig (1987) and Marcos Ambrose (2001) as the only rookies to secure Bathurst pole. His provisional qualifying lap of 2:03.9376 had also made him the first Gen3 driver to break the 2:04 mark.
Team 18's De Pasquale qualified third, ahead of Erebus Motorsport driver Cooper Murray. Matt Payne, the series leader, placed 10th. Defending Supercars champion Chaz Mostert qualified 16th, the best position achieved by a Toyota Supra.
Bates returns for his second Bathurst 1000 after finishing 10th on debut with Craig Lowndes in a Triple Eight Race Engineering wildcard. The Canberra driver is Rick Bates' son and Neal Bates' nephew.
