Finke rookie Lowndes and co-driver Dale Moscatt stopped the clocks at 5m51.094s on the short loop that sets the order for the run to Aputula tomorrow.

That left them at the top of the Production 4WD class, a little over eight seconds faster than the factory-backed Ford Performance Ranger Raptor of defending class champions Brad and Byam Lovell.

The two production-based cars will start from 74th and 85th respectively with a 15-minute gap between them.

“We had a sighting lap and then of course once you get 100 buggies and trucks go by, it was a little bit different for our prologue time,” said Lowndes.

“The water dispersed but being hard pack, it spread a bit like an ice skating rink. So we had to be a little bit careful in some sections.

“But we had some good whoops sections where we got some are and the truck was great.”

Despite being beaten by the Chevv in the prologue, Ford’s Brad Lovell remains confident heading into the race itself.

“I think we had a solid run in the prologue, we beat our time from last year which felt really positive,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the Chevy is about eight seconds faster than us, but I think that is going to make it a more dramatic race for us.

“I still feel very confident about our pace in the natural, open terrain, and look forward to a solid race. We are certainly going to be controlling our pace in the whoops tomorrow, and focused on getting the Ranger Raptor as fast as we can.

“It is looking really good from a dust standpoint – there was very little dust during the prologue while there was quite a lot last year – I think that is going to make it easy for us to push up through the crowd and catch that Chevy.”

Leading the way in the Cars class was Beau Robinson, who won the prologue – and the $2000 prize money from Method Race Wheels – with a rapid 4m46.874s alongside co-driver Shane Hutt in their Trophy Truck.

That left them a little under three seconds clear of Pro Buggy driver Carl Haby.

“It’s good to have a clean run [in the prologue] and we are up here to put in the work. We’ve obviously been doing it for the last 10-15 days back and forth from Perth so we are ready,” said Robinson.

“The prologue course is almost more like Supercross and it’s actually a bit tough. The main track is looking pretty good, not a lot of dust, which doesn’t really work in our favour but that’s alright.

“Tomorrow we have ultimately got to do another qualifying down there and cement our place. We’ve got to watch ourselves but we will give it a crack.”

Robinson’s brother Travis, another regular front-runner, was a shock DNF after crashing his Pro Buggy in the short dash.

There was family drama in the Bikes class as well, with David Walsh – on a four-year winning streak – was bested by cousin Liam Walsh in the prologue.

Liam set a 4m36.298s to lead fellow KTM riders Callum Norton (4m39.115s) and David Walsh (4m41.222s).

Robinson will lead the Finke field away tomorrow morning at 7:30am local time (ACST).