In a competitive field, the Ford Mustang driver outpointed his nearest opposition by 0.12s. Earlier Hazelwood who sits equal second in the points, was fastest in both practice sessions by around 0.2s in both.

“We were fastest in both practice sessions and just got there in qualifying, it’s a first for the TFH Racing team, something we knew was coming after the last round,” he enthused.

“The car was a little bit pushy in that session. We practiced on our used tyres from the last round which had the car sliding around, and then go onto fresh rubber for qualifying. There was a lot of rubber down and the car had lots of grip, but some understeer.”

Second and set to share the front row for the first of four races will be Nathan Herne who has turned his Dodge Challenger into a Mustang.

The Racing Academy’s Elliott Cleary was third quickest ahead of Garry Rogers Motorsport’s James Golding and Edan Thornburrow, and Cleary’s teammate Jordan Boys. Next was Elliot Barbour in his Chev Camaro which broke a Mustang stranglehold of the top spots with 12 of the top 13 sporting a blue oval.

Jackson Rice was seventh fastest ahead of series leader James Moffat and Jordan Cox (Camaro) who was later excluded for being underweight. That promoted Josh Thomas ahead of TFH teammate Des Collier who stopped the second practice session for a period when he had a broken gearbox.

Tom Davies was 12th in front of the first of the Dream Racing entries in Josh Webster, John Holinger (Camaro), Brett Holdsworth (Mustang), James Simpson (Challenger) and the Camaros piloted by Lee Stibbs, Mark Bailey, Jason Pryde and Domain Ramsay.