Steven Richards may have grabbed pole position for the inaugural V8 Supercar event on the streets of Hamilton in New Zealand, but the achievement was overshadowed somewhat by an accident that will rule championship leader Jamie Whincup out of the rest of the weekend.
The #88 Team Vodafone Ford Falcon collided with Todd Kelly's Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore midway through the second qualifying session, before being fired off into one of the unforgiving concrete barriers that line the new circuit. While Whincup was fortunate to escape from the shunt largely unscathed, Team Vodafone has confirmed that his car will not be repaired in time to contest the remainder of the event.
With the accident halting session two prematurely, several drivers found themselves removed from the equation earlier than expected. While Greg Murphy - fastest to that point - Rick Kelly and Garth Tander all made it through into the shoot-out for pole, the truncated session meant that Richards' Ford Performance Racing team-mate Mark Winterbottom will start outside the top ten, along with home favourite Shane van Gisbergen, who had impressed for Stone Brothers Racing in Friday's practice sessions.
Richards, meanwhile, came through the carnage to eventually take pole position for race one, putting together a near flawless lap in the Top Ten Shootout to post a time of 1min 24.72secs that proved too good for the seven Holdens also in the mix. Reigning champion Tander maintained his recent good form to claim second, with former Toll HSV team-mate Rick Kelly third.
The session started off dry, but rain fell sporadically, making tyre choice the key to putting in a fast lap. Richards evidently made the right call in the final session, going out on slicks to beat Tander to pole by 0.07secs.
![Steven Richards - Ford Performance Racing [Pic credit: Ford/Edge Photographics]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/417046.jpg)
