South Australian Jayden Wanzek will start Race 1 of the 2023 GazooRacing Australia Series opening round from pole position after he topped qualifying.

Earlier in the day on the streets of Townsville, Clay Richards was the only driver to lap in less than 1:30s, but Wanzek was one of 18 to go under that time in the grid decider.

Wanzek’s best was a 1:29.3049s flyer to edge 0.011s ahead of early pacesetter Jarrod Hughes. Third fastest was the Bathurst 6 Hour winner and Toyota guest driver Jayden Ojeda ahead of Ryan Casha, Cambell Logan and the second guest driver Australian Rally Championship leader Lewis Bates.

Richards will start on the outside of the third row in position six, ahead of Brock Stinson and Lachlan Bloxsom. Behind them will be Jack Westbury, Ben Gomersall, Rylan Gray, Hayden Jume and Cody Burcher.

Former Development Series and RX-8 Cup driver Marcus La Delle who took out the first round of the Scholarship Series, was 15th ahead of Jordan Shalala, Reuben Goodall and Max Geoghegan [grandson of Ian] who was a three-race winner of the most recent round of the feeder series.

Next was the Practice 2’s fastest Jimmy Holdsworth in 20th, in front of Jordan Freestone and Michael Sherwell. The Supercar teams’ Junior Develop drivers, Scholarship Round 2 winner Matt Hillyer [Walkinshaw Andretti United] and Oscar Targett [Grove Racing], were 22nd and 23rd.

Following them on the grid will be Tom Davies, Ryan Tomsett, Ryan Hadden, Bradi Owen, Mitchell McGarry, Cooper Barnes, Craig Thornton, Alice Buckley, Rossi Johnson and Zoe Woods.

With three races across the weekend, the TGRA 86 Series has two races on Saturday July 8 – the first scheduled for 08:10 local time/08:10 AEST and the second at 11:20 – while Race 3 will be on Sunday July 9 at 11:20.