FORD Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom insists he is over last year's Bathurst nightmare and ready to set Mount Panorama alight in today's top-10 shootout.

Winterbottom looks in great shape to secure a second successive pole at the Great Race, topping the charts in qualifying yesterday heading into today's one-lap dash to determine the starting grid.

A year ago he led the Bathurst 1000 with 13 laps to go before he made the worst mistake of his career, overcooking the turn at about 200kmh and careering across The Chase, narrowly avoiding a collision with eventual winner Craig Lowndes.

"I'm over last year," said Winterbottom yesterday. "Last year it burned pretty badly, but you move on . . . It's not burning any more. I won't do it again."

Winterbottom clocked two minutes, 07.19 seconds in his last lap, with Holden's Jason Richards a surprise second-quickest, 0.041 back.

"The car is awesome, it really is. It just encourages you to go fast," said Richards, whose teammate is four-time Bathurst champion Greg Murphy.

Ford's Jamie Whincup was third-fastest in his first qualifying attempt at the mountain, despite being a two-time champion at Bathurst. He and teammate Lowndes are shooting for a historic third straight win tomorrow.

There was an accident in the earlier session when Team Kiwi Racing's Chris Pither T-boned Holden driver Paul Weel. Pither was uninjured and Weel was expected to be cleared of serious injury. Neither will compete tomorrow.

AAP