Josh Buchan scored his first-ever pole position in the TCR Australia series on Saturday, heading HMO Customer Racing team-mate Nathan Morcom in a Hyundai 1-2 result.
Buchan was over half a second clear of Morcom in the second part of qualifying, giving him the best possible starting position for Saturday night’s race under the floodlights – the first night race in TCR Australia history.
Buchan had earlier set the benchmark in the first part of qualifying as well, with a time of 1 minute 32.925 seconds which he later bettered by a further three tenths in Q2, although his Q1 time alone would still have been good enough for pole.
Morcom won’t start from second either, after he was handed a five-place grid penalty due to an engine change ahead of the session.
That promotes Melbourne Performance Centre’s Will Brown to the front row of the grid, the Audi driver having qualified six tenths from Buchan’s time in Q2.
Aaron Cameron qualified his GRM Peugeot in fourth as the leading 308 TCR driver, a tenth of a second ahead of team-mate Jordan Cox in fifth, with both drivers also being promoted a place by Morcom’s penalty.
Zac Soutar was sixth in his independent Honda and will share the third row of the grid for race one with the GRM Peugeot of Dylan O’Keeffe, who was seventh fastest.
Wall Racing’s Tony D’Alberto was eighth quickest, the only other driver to be within a second of Buchan’s Q2 pace.
The top ten was completed by the Alfa Romeo of Michael Caruso, whose team had worked late to fix an issue with his car overnight, and the Hyundai of Luke King.
Fabian Coulthard, returning to the wheel of the Stan Sport Honda entry this weekend, just missed out on progressing beyond Q1 and will start from 11th for the opening race, having been less than a tenth of a second away from progressing.
James Moffat was the leading Renault driver in 12th, missing out on moving beyond Q1 for the second time this season.
Brad Shiels put his self-run Hyundai in 13th, just under a second and a half off Buchan’s Q1 benchmark.
Jay Hanson, back behind the wheel of the latest-specification Audi this weekend, was only 14th, having been one of the first to set a benchmark time in the Q1 session.
The only driver to fail to post a lap time was Braydan Willmington, who will start from 21st after recurring turbo hose problems.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 18:45 local time (10:45 CEST, 09:45 BST).
Q2 result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 30 |  |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 1:32.629 | – |
| 2 | 11 | |
Nathan MORCOM | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:33.153 | 0.525 |
| 3 | 999 | |
Will BROWN | MPC Team Liqui Moly | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | 1:33.270 | 0.641 |
| 4 | 18 | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 3 | 1:33.314 | 0.686 |
| 5 | 33 | |
Jordan COX | Swyftx GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 3 | 1:33.366 | 0.737 |
| 6 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Team Soutar Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 3 | 1:33.415 | 0.786 |
| 7 | 8 | |
Dylan O’KEEFFE | Schaeffler GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 3 | 1:33.509 | 0.881 |
| 8 | 50 | |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 3 | 1:33.549 | 0.920 |
| 9 | 10 | |
Michael CARUSO | Ashley Seward Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 3 | 1:33.657 | 1.028 |
| 10 | 2 | |
Luke KING | MOUTAI / Zip Pay | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:34.320 | 1.691 |
Q1 result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 30 | |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:32.925 | – |
| 2 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Team Soutar Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 1:33.370 | 0.446 |
| 3 | 11 | |
Nathan MORCOM | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:33.478 | 0.553 |
| 4 | 999 | |
Will BROWN | MPC Team Liqui Moly | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | 1:33.724 | 0.799 |
| 5 | 50 | |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 1:33.730 | 0.806 |
| 6 | 8 | |
Dylan O’KEEFFE | Schaeffler GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 1:33.762 | 0.837 |
| 7 | 2 | |
Luke KING | MOUTAI / Zip Pay | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 1:33.806 | 0.881 |
| 8 | 10 | |
Michael CARUSO | Ashley Seward Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 7 | 1:33.843 | 0.918 |
| 9 | 18 | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 1:33.892 | 0.967 |
| 10 | 33 | |
Jordan COX | Swyftx GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:33.901 | 0.977 |
| 11 | 24 |  |
Fabian COULTHARD | Stan Sport Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 1:33.983 | 1.058 |
| 12 | 34 | |
James MOFFAT | LCMT+ Racing GRM | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 6 | 1:34.087 | 1.162 |
| 13 | 333 | |
Brad SHIELS | Royal Purple Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 1:34.377 | 1.452 |
| 14 | 9 | |
Jay HANSON | AWC MPC Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:34.412 | 1.488 |
| 15 | 41 | |
Kody GARLAND | Valvoline Racing GRM | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 5 | 1:34.463 | 1.538 |
| 16 | 71 | |
Ben BARGWANNA | Burson Auto Parts Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 7 | 1:34.465 | 1.540 |
| 17 | 15 | |
Michael CLEMENTE | Michael Clemente Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 8 | 1:34.581 | 1.656 |
| 18 | 130 | |
Bailey SWEENY | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 1:34.656 | 1.731 |
| 19 | 14 | |
Lachlan MINEEFF | Purple Sector | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 8 | 1:34.659 | 1.734 |
| 20 | 22 | |
Iain MCDOUGALL | Melbourne Performance Centre | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:35.009 | 2.084 |
| 21 | 89 | |
Braydan WILLMINGTON | Braydan Willmington Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 1 | No time | N/A |