One point off the series lead, Bailey Sweeney had taken his first pole for Round 5 of Supercheap Auto TCR Australia at Sandown International Raceway in the Shannons SpeedSeries.

“I didn’t quite nail that final lap,” he said which suggested that he could have gone quicker than the 1:14.1547 best lap he set in the HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30N.

The top times continually dropped throughout the session before Sweeny did the pole winner at the end of the session. He had a 0.1189s advantage over Lachlan Mineeff (Audi RS3 LMS). After a meeting with the fence late on Friday and overnight repairs, Zac Soutar (Audi), who was quickest for the day, finished third.

Next to him for the first of three races will be reigning title holder Tony D’Alberto (Honda Civic FK7) ahead of Aaron Cameron (Peugeot 308), current points leader Josh Buchan (Hyundai), Michael Clemente (Cupra Leon Comp), Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot), Kody Garland (Peugeot) and last round winner Will Brown (Audi).

Qualifying 1, where the top ten went through to Q2, was headed up by Sweeney over Soutar, Mineeff, Bargwanna and D’Alberto. Brown was outside the top 10 until the last moment, where he snuck in behind Cameron and Clemente, and in front of Buchan and Garland.

Those that missed out were Jordan Cox (Peugeot), and Brit Oliphant (Lynk & Co), who was back in the series after he missed the last round whilst getting married in England. Also out were Iain McDougall (Audi) and Clay Richards, who raced an Audi at the Winton round before the switch to Peugeot for this outing.