Racing Academy teammates Cody Gillis and Elliott Cleary will share the front row for Race 1 of the National Trans Am Series fourth round at Queensland Raceway later today.

On the back of second overall at the previous round, Gillis recorded his fastest time in the first half of the session aboard the Mustang. “We came in and changed the left side tyres. We didn’t go any faster, but I still think there is more in it,” he said.

Ben Grice (Mustang), who is generally one of the best in qualifying, was the first to set a competitive time before Tim Brook (Challenger), who was the quickest in Friday’s practice session, undercut that time. Then Cleary went to the top before Gillis put in the 1:11.5718 that would remain the benchmark for qualifying’s duration.

The teammates were split by 0.08s while Elliot Barbour (Camaro) was around a tenth away in third and ahead of Edan Thornburrow and Tom Hayman in their Mustangs.

Series leader James Moffat (Mustang) was sixth fastest ahead of Round 3 threepeat winner Lachie Dalton (Mustang), Brook, Brett Holdsworth (Camaro) and Grice in 10th and just over half a second off the pole time.

Then followed Josh Thomas (Mustang) ahead of a pair of Camaros in the hands of Nick Lange and Josh Webster. Mark Crutcher (Mustang) was 14th overall and in front of James Simpson (Challenger) in his comeback after a dramatic crash in the first round, John Holinger (Camaro), Shaun Richardson (Challenger) and Craig Scutella (Camaro).

The National Trans Am Series, part of the Shannons SpeedSeries, will have two of four races on Saturday scheduled at 12:25 pm and 2:15 pm AEST over 20mins and 30mins, respectively. Both races will be live on Stan Sport, and Race 2 can also be seen on 9 Gem. On Sunday, there will be two more races of 25 and 30mins duration at 12:05 pm and 3:30 pm