Lowndes on second row as Ellery crashes out.

Despite struggling with changing track conditions throughout qualifying, Craig Lowndes will start the latest round of the V8 Supercar Championship from the second row of the grid after qualifying fourth at Oran Park.

Engineer Campbell Little and Lowndes both battled to optimise the handling of the #888 Falcon throughout qualifying with Lowndes eventually setting the sixth quickest time.

Having earned a place in the Top Ten Shootout, Lowndes then picked up two more places with a best time of 1min 08.6532secs.

"We struggled a bit through qualifying as the track conditions changed a lot from the morning's practice session," he said. "We made a lot of changes to tyre pressures and tyre combination and I was quite happy with the car by the time it came to the shootout.

"I got a reasonably clean lap in the shootout but didn't run the kerb enough in turn eight which cost me a bit of time. The car was good as a race car which gives us confidence for tomorrow. It is going to be imperative to get a good start tomorrow with the long drag from the start line to turn one."

However team-mate Steve Ellery was unable to take part in qualifying and will also miss both races after he crashed into the wall at turn nine during practice, damaging the #88 Falcon enough to put it out of action for the rest of the weekend.

"Everything was going so well this morning," he admitted. "The car felt good, we were sitting in fifth position, I had just made two excellent sector times and it was looking like being my best lap.

"It was driver error I made an honest mistake and got the brake and throttle at the same time. My injuries are ok, they will heal, what hurts is seeing the car going into the truck."