Driving the #19 Mustang, Payne improved on his earlier effort to lead Thursday pole position winner Brodie Kostecki in the #17 Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang.

“We got pole for tomorrow, which is a funny thing,” said Payne.

“Starting fourth this afternoon, so that should be a good fight as well. Really glad to get pole for the team. The boys have been working hard. Pretty cool.

“It’s a long lap, it’s super difficult. Today, this morning, was so dusty. The track was so hard to drive on, which made our day quite difficult.

“We’ve had to chase it from there, but it’s been really good. The guys have done a really good job with the car and we’ve just been chipping away at it.

“That last session was the best it’s been.”

Toyota duo Ryan Wood and Chaz Mostert were impressive, setting the third and fourth fastest times respectively in their Walkinshaw TWG Racing Supras.

“It’s good. The guys have been working so hard over the last 10 days or so after SMP to try and get some additional performance out of the car,” said Walkinshaw.

“We still know the engines are still a little under-powered, so to get a result like that considering the handicap that we have in that department is a real testament to the hard work that’s gone in to making sure the balance of the car has improved.

“A big step forward from Sydney Motorsport Park. We just have to continue building on that over the course of the weekend.”

It marked a massive turnaround from the Sydney 500 for the Walkinshaw TWG Racing.

Though the team got both of its cars in the top five in the third race at Sydney Motorsport Park, its one-lap pace had been lacking.

“To be honest, I was happy in the first qualifying when we got fifth for Chaz and ninth for Woody,” said Walkinshaw of Thursday afternoon’s first qualifying.

“We were pretty happy with that result considering where we were at SMP.

“To get third and fourth is a huge step forward. We probably weren’t expecting that, hence a few people back-slapping after that session.”

Points leader Broc Feeney was fifth in his #88 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mustang ahead of surprise packet Cooper Murray in the #99 Erebus Motorsport Camaro.

The biggest session-on-session drop was James Golding, who had been second fastest in the first leg of qualifying but only 17th in the second leg.

Race 1 of the Melbourne SuperSprint gets underway on Thursday at 5:00pm AEDT. Race 2 gets underway at the slightly later time of 5:30pm AEDT on Friday.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship Melbourne SuperSprint, Qualifying (Race 2)