Ford’s Cameron Waters will start Sunday’s 200km Supercars race in Townsville from pole position after pipping championship leader Scott McLaughlin.

The Tickford Racing driver posted a lap of one minute and 12.4869 seconds in the top 10 shootout on the Reid Park street circuit, just doing enough to hold off DJR Team Penske’s McLaughlin (1:12.5028).

It’s Waters’ first pole position of the year and he was clearly thrilled to have had a minor win over the dominant McLaughlin – who is chasing a seventh-straight race win.

“They’ve been in a league of their own this year so to be able to grab a pole off them is awesome,” Waters told Fox Sports.

It’s the first race meeting this year where McLaughlin hasn’t claimed at least one pole position, as he heads into Sunday’s race with a dominant 358-point championship lead.

Holden’s David Reynolds, who claimed pole position on Saturday, will start the race from third alongside surprise package Todd Hazelwood on the second row of the grid.

McLaughlin’s teammate and main championship rival Fabian Coulthard will start his 400th Supercars race from fifth alongside fellow New Zealander Shane Van Gisbergen.

Van Gisbergen’s Red Bull Holden Racing Team stablemate Jamie Whincup will have to start from 12th after failing to qualify for the top 10 shootout.

Saturday’s third-place finisher Chaz Mostert will also start outside the top 10, after only managing to qualify 16th for the 70-lap race.

Sunday’s race gets underway at 3.10pm.