Tony D’Alberto will start from pole position with his teammate Brad Harris alongside. Reigning champion Josh Buchan (HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30N TCR) was third quickest ahead of Dylan O’Keeffe (Ash Seward Motorsport Lynk & Co CO 03 TCR).

On the third row will be Clay Richards (CUPRA Leon Competicion) and points leader Zac Soutar (Audi RS3 LMS TCR).

“That [$1000 prize for pole] will go towards paying off the tribunal . . . or some of it,” D’Alberto quipped about the failed attempt to regain the points lost at Round 2.

In Qualifying 1 which determined who advanced to Qualifying 2, D’Alberto and Harris ran one-two, as they did out of the two practice sessions on Friday.

Buchan finished Q1 in third ahead of O’Keeffe and Richards. Soutar held onto to sixth, as his session was cut short by a blown tyre.

Round 1 winner and second in the 2024 series behind Soutar, Ben Bargwanna in the best of the Peugeot 308 TCRs, missed the top six by 0.14s. He headed Round 2 victor Tom Oliphant (Hyundai i30N TCR) who had the edge on the other Peugeots.

The French marque pilots, Aaron Cameron and Ryan Casha ensued ahead of the four 308 with Jordan Cox. The latter’s car suffered a misfire on Friday which has not been resolved and he will start Race 1 out of 11th.

Behind him are Will Harris in the third of the Hondas, Glenn Nirwan (Audi) and newcomer in Jude Bargwanna in the Alfa Romeo Giulietta, formerly driven by Cox.

Race 1 is scheduled to begin at 3:15pm AEST and run over 30mins.