Victorian Steven Richards claimed pole position for the Australian GT Championship races at Townsville’s Reid Park street circuit.
Richards hustled the Lamborghini Gallardo around the 2.86km circuit to claim the top spot with a 1:12.322s flyer.
The three-times Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercars winner blitzed the next best time set by Klark Quinn (McLaren MP4-12C) by 0.4s with Tony D’Alberto (Ferrari 458) third.
Erebus Academy driver Richard Muscat was fourth in the AMG SLS GT ahead of Tony Quinn’s Aston Martin Vantage.
Nathan Antunes (Audi), James Koundouris (Porsche), James Winslow (Audi), Daniel Gaunt (Lamborghini) and John Magro (Audi) completed the top 10.
The session to decide pole for the first of three 40 minute races was red flagged with Keith Kassulke’s Ascari suffering an electrical fire.
The Ascari, which had suffered from a misfire for much of practice, and has been ruled out for the weekend due to the damage sustained in the fire.