Bathurst 1000 recap: ‘Speechless’ rookie quickest in Gen3 era qualifying

And that’s it for Friday at the Mountain.

Thanks for joining us, let’s see if Zach Bates can back up his amazing session with pole for Sunday’s race in the top ten shootout tomorrow.

The nine.com.au team will be live blogging tomorrow from 10am AEDT.

Zach Bates has shocked the Supercars paddock with a performance good enough to place him in a club of one.

The only driver in a Gen3 era car to ever post a 2:03 lap around Mount Panorama.

No champions or much more experienced drivers have been able to punch through the time barrier, but a rookie from Matt Stone Racing did it in Friday’s qualifying session.

Bates had the pace all day, and flew to the top of the board with a 2:03.937s lap.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

It’s hard not to feel happy for Zach Bates.

A rookie in his full-time season with Matt Stone Racing, and only having run Bathurst for the first time last year in the Triple Eight wildcard entry, this is a historic showing.

“I can’t believe it. Yeah, I am speechless,” he said on the Fox coverage.

“It’s just a whole credit to the crew behind me. The boys and girls have been working so hard.”

Zach’s father Rick Bates was in tears as his son made provisional pole. Bates raced last year just weeks after his mother, Alison Drower, passed due to a rare form of cancer.

“This is for my mum who passed last year. I can’t believe we’ve had a pretty average year, the whole family,” Bates continued.

“So this is definitely a highlight and yeah, super thankful.”

Matt Stone Racing’s Zach Bates has done it!

With a lap of 2:03.937s, he will now be the last runner in tomorrow’s top ten shootout.

For now, he takes provisional pole and he can call himself the only driver to post a 2:03 lap in the Gen3 car at Bathurst.

The pack is coming out of the pit lane, but they are completely bunched up together.

Bates is still quickest and big news is that Broc Feeney is out of the top ten shootout. He crosses 12th.

Wowee!

Matt Stone Racing’s Zach Bates has done the quickest lap in the Gen3 car around Mount Panorama with a 2:04.002s.

But that’s right now, don’t hold your breath, we could go quicker.

On his hunt for history, Brodie Kostecki is the quickest in qualifying in the early runs with a 2:04.749s.

But Erebus’ Cooper Murray goes quickest with a 2:04.172 and Zach Bates drops in behind him, just three tenths behind him.

It’s the young guns pulling the pace here. Remember, drivers 11-24 will start as they finish this session, the top ten will battle in the shootout tomorrow for pole.

Two drivers are not out for this session.

If Brodie Kostecki finds himself in the top ten shootout tomorrow and quickest around the mountain, he will make Supercars history.

No other driver in the category has ever posted four consecutive pole positions for the Bathurst 1000.

But without his usual engineer and a last-minute engine change, he might have quite the challenge ahead of him.