In his Ford Mustang, Haynes was quickest in both practice sessions and in the split qualifying (top and bottom 50 percent) scored pole position over Hazelwood by 0.04s. Missing from the grid decider session were Mustang drivers Josh Thomas (engine) and Greg Keam (diff).

Haynes grabbed the lead at the start and was able to ward off Erebus Supercars driver Hazelwood (Mustang) and finish 2.9s ahead after 12 laps. Another 1.6s away in third place was Tom Hayman (Mustang).

“I was obviously really nervous having Todd Hazelwood who is a big name next to me, but I made sure I got a clean start. Held it together at turn 2, came out of there cleanly and then put my head down to try and build a bit of a gap, so it was really good,” Haynes said.

Fourth place went to Lee Stibbs (Chev Camaro) who repelled the challenge from 2023 title holder Dylan Thomas (Mustang).

Position six looked to be comfortably in the hands of Mark Crutcher (Mustang) until the later stages. The battling Graham Cheney (Camaro) and Hayden Jackson (Dodge Challenger) had close in on Crutcher, but the latter was able to hold on.

Michael Coulter had a lone run in his new Mustang which has Nathan Herne as crew chief this weekend, well clear of Anthony Tenkate (Mustang) the  beneficiary when rookie Connor Roberts (Challenger) had a wild spin and speedway driver Domain Reidy (Camaro) fell back.

Paul Hadley (Camaro) also had his moment but recovered to finish 11th ahead of Barry Kelleher (Camaro). The expected strong challenge from Brad Gartner in his new Camaro fizzled on the first lap with blown steering.

The TA2 Muscle Cars will have three races on Saturday. Race 2 will be live streamed on various socials including the TA2,  Hi-Tec Oils and Speedcafe Facebook pages in the afternoon, Races 3 and 4 will be live and free to air on SBS Viceland, Fox Sports and Kayo Sports from 6pm.