V8 Supercars championship leader Jamie Whincup will start Sunday’s Bathurst 1000 from the back of the grid after crashing out during qualifying.
The Red Bull Racing star slid into a concrete barrier at Mount Panorama with 20 minutes left in Friday afternoon’s session.
The incident caused significant damage to his Holden Commodore, ending his chances of a place in the Top 10 shootout.
Holden’s Fabian Coulthard took provisional pole position amid the drama, smashing the official lap record in the process.
His time of two minutes, 5.6080 seconds slashed more than a second off Greg Murphy’s famous Lap of the Gods (2:06.8594) set in 2003.
Coulthard was followed by the Commodores of Shane van Gisbergen and Dale Wood, with Ford’s defending Bathurst champion Mark Winterbottom fourth quickest.
Whincup’s lap time before the crash has him 25th on the grid, only ahead of Ford Performance Racing’s David Reynolds who was also involved in a heavy crash.
“My error,” Whincup told the Seven Network.
“I was a little bit weak in that sector and I just tried to find a bit more time but it obviously wasn’t there.
“I got in a bit deep, locked the rears and into the fence.
“It’s done quite a bit of damage. Hopefully it hasn’t hit the chassis. If the chassis’ not good, I’m sure we’ll be able to fix it.
“But time will tell. We’ve got the best crew in the world here.”
Whincup had been the clear favourite to win Australia’s Great Race following his Sandown 500 victory with co-driver Paul Dumbrell last month.
His campaign didn’t get off to a great start, finishing 17th in practice on Thursday in a car his engineer labelled “almost undriveable”.
But he bounced back in the final practice session before qualifying on Friday, clocking the third fastest time of the day.
Whincup has conquered the Mountain four times and is aiming for a record sixth V8 Supercars title this year.
Despite the incident, Dumbrell remained upbeat about their chances of still claiming the 2014 Bathurst title.
“We’re not ruling out ourselves out of the race,” he said.
“We know the car will be strong. The team here at will get the car right and we’ll certainly make sure we get it right tomorrow morning.
“What a great story it would be to come through and be competitive on Sunday.
“It’s not over, we’ve just got to make sure we keep our heads up and keep smiling.”
The top 10 grid positions will be determined from 5.10pm (AEDT) on Saturday.
TOP 10 SHOOTOUT CONTENDERS
Fabian Coulthard (Holden)
Shane van Gisbergen (Holden)
Dale Wood (Holden)
Mark Winterbottom (Ford)
Scott McLaughlin (Volvo)
Jason Bright (Holden)
Jack Perkins (Ford)
James Moffat (Nissan)
Garth Tander (Holden)
Craig Lowndes (Holden)
