Cam Waters has taken a third straight Symmons Plains pole in a thrilling three-part qualifying session.
Waters proved quickest of all in the third stanza of the session, adding to his two Sunday poles from last year.
Shane van Gisbergen, meanwhile is in the box seat to regain the points lead despite qualifying fifth.
Van Gisbergen used just one set of tyres to his final run and held provisional pole before the final runs.
While van Gisbergen missed out on pole, he will start ahead of his closest championship challengers.
Chaz Mostert and Anton De Pasquale, who sandwich van Gisbergen in the championship standings, both missed Q3.
De Pasquale and Mostert will launch from 12th and 13th respectively for Race 3, which will start at 4:55pm AEDT.
Waters will share the front row with Will Davison, who missed pole by just 0.02s.
Broc Feeney impressed to third and out-qualified his fancied teammate, and will start alongside Brodie Kostecki.
“That was out of nowhere, that was really weird,” a shocked Waters said.
“I was a bit surprised. The guys have done a fantastic job, the car was pretty ordinary in Practice 2.
“Massive thanks to my team… we didn’t have tyre life last year.
“I hope we’ve learned a few things, it’s nice on its tyres and we can get a trophy today.”
David Reynolds led the way in the first 12-minute stanza on a 50.628s; the top 21 cars were covered by 0.627s.
It was a vastly different story for teammate Lee Holdsworth, who suffered an off at Turn 6 and qualified 21st.
Van Gisbergen set the pace in Q2 on a 50.661s, and was unseated at the death by Feeney, Davison and Kostecki.
Reynolds made an error on his run and ended up 15th, but used just one set of tyres to get there.
During Q2, Mostert’s car began haemorrhaging power steering fluid. He returned to the track for a second run, but couldn’t improve.
De Pasquale couldn’t convert on his final lap either, and ended up 12th.
The final Q3 spot was secured by Todd Hazelwood, who was just 0.02s quicker than Mark Winterbottom.
Van Gisbergen replicated his Q2 time with a 50.6s lap and assumed top spot after the first runs.
However, it became a shootout between Waters and Davison, with the former winning the race to pole.
James Courtney, Andre Heimgartner, Scott Pye, Hazelwood and Jack Le Brocq rounded out the top 10.