THEY conquered Bathurst; now David Reynolds and Luke Youlden will try to conquer the Sandown 500 from pole position.

Reynolds secured his ninth pole position - and the third for Youlden - with a controlled drive in Race for the Grid 2, holding off a charging Jamie Whincup in the closing stages.

The second qualifying race started out on a damp track that dried steadily throughout, with all cars starting the race on slick tyres.

Despite the Erebus driver’s hard-fought victory, he immediately paid tribute to Youlden’s effort in the preceding race.

“It was a bizarre crazy day, but it was all set up by this bloke here,” he said of his co-driver.

“That last couple of laps there my rear tyres were going off and i was struggling a bit, and Jamie was quicker than me. I’m very grateful to have pole.”

Whincup had charged from 11th on the grid, passing car after car with bold moves at the end of Sandown’s long straights, but could find no way past the Erebus car.

“The car’s great,” he said.

“We’ve been in this position before though and things haven’t gone well on Sunday.”

Scott McLaughlin finished third to cement a strong starting position for Sunday’s race, seven places ahead of title rival Shane van Gisbergen.

The championship leader conceded he’d made a poor start from 16th on the grid, his charge forward running out of steam when he got onto the rear of teammate Lowndes.

“He had no left-side mirror so I wasn’t sure to have a go or not - then he turned in anyway!” SVG explained.

The major casualty of the race was James Courtney.

The No.22 Mobil 1 Boost Mobile Holden was running ahead of Lowndes on the cusp of the top 10 in the early laps when it snapped sideways on turn-in to The Esses.

“I thought I was going to get around but I just glanced the tyres,” he said.

The impact with the tyres ripped the right front wheel off the car and left it with heavy damage, Courtney skating all the way down to the sand trap at Dandenong Road Corner.

The resulting Safety Car closed up the gaps that had formed in the early stages, aiding the Red Bull cars’ charges up the field.

Fabian Coulthard and Mark Winterbottom rounded out the top five, with Heimgartner next after surviving an investigation into his start.

Chaz Mostert, Tim Slade, Anton De Pasquale and Lowndes rounded out the top 10.

The cars next hit the track for a 15-minute Warm Up session ahead of the 161-lap Sandown 500.