Benalla’s star Supercars export Zak Best has announced himself on the big stage, after he claimed pole position for the opening race of the Supercars OTR SuperSprint in Tailem Bend at the weekend.
Racing as a wildcard entry, the Tickford Racing speedster edged out reigning champion and series leader Shane Van Gisbergen to pole for race 21 by an astonishing 0.02 seconds.
Best debuted at the 2021 Bathurst 1000 as a co-driver and competed at The Bend in just his second SuperCars event as a solo driver.
“I wasn’t expecting this, I don't really know what to say. We did the best we could,” Best said after the race.
“Had a big go into turn one, we were losing a bit to Cam (Waters).
“Had a look, pieced it all together finally and it was good enough for pole.”
Best’s Tickford teammate Cam Waters started third behind Best and van Gisbergen, alongside Chaz Mostert.
The top four were separated by just 0.19 seconds.
The Benalla young gun was unable to back up his early heroics over the weekend, but nevertheless secured P5 in race 21.
Best then got over the line in 16th in race 22, navigating several crashes in Sunday afternoon’s sprint.
He was forced to retire early in race 23 after a wiper failure in wet conditions at The Bend.
Best ran a plain black, unsponsored Tickford Mustang over the weekend after major sponsorship could not be secured for his second wildcard entry.
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