Richards time not only gave the Interlloy supported team pole position, but smashed the standing qualifying lap record, and was almost two seconds faster than the top time from the three V8 Supercar sessions at the 2.85-kilometre street circuit.

Richards time was impressive, but so too reigning Australian GT champion Klark Quinn and former V8 Supercar full-timer Tony D’Alberto in the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari, all three drivers within half a second, and all well below the 2011, 1:14.2557 pole time..

“It wasn’t a bad lap,” Richards admitted. “I could have gone half a second quicker on the next lap, but I got caught up in traffic. The car is great, I think we’re in a pretty good position. Justin [McMillan] was quick in his practice session earlier in the day, so overall I think we’re looking good for the three races this weekend.”

It was no real surprise that D’Alberto was quick during opening practice, but despite his ability to find the fast way around the Reid Park circuit, D’Alberto was still a little nervous ahead of his maiden run in the Bathurst 12-Hour winning Ferrari.

“It’s strange to think it’s fact, but JB [Bowe] has been to every Townsville event since its inception, but he’s never driven here, so the team want him to do the first two sessions, which means my first laps will be in qualifying..” D’Alberto admitted with just a little trepidation. “I love Townsville, but I haven’t done any laps in that car around here, so it’s a big ask to jump straight in and go after a time first up!”

In the end the Maranello Motorsport team sent D’Alberto out in P2 where he was quickly up to speed, battling for the top position with points leader Richard Muscat.

Ultimately Muscat topped both practice sessions, in the process dropping below the lap record benchmark in session two despite the fact the track wasn’t at its best.

Muscat’s time in P1 was 1:14.9124, seven tenths slower than Klark Quinn’s 2011 pole time. Second fastest was Trophy Class driver Nathan Antunes in the Skwirk.com.au Audi R8 of points leader Rod Salmon, with fellow Audi driver John Magro third in the Ockert Fourie car, just three tenths separating the leading trio.

D’Alberto held point in session two as he and Muscat battled for the top spot, both of them well under the standing lap record, Muscat ultimately topping the session with a 1:13.9465, just two one hundredths faster than D’Alberto, with Phillip Island winner Tony Quinn third in the VIP Petfoods Aston Martin.

After the two 20-minute practice sessions, qualifying was scheduled for mid-afternoon after a number of categories had ‘cleaned’ the circuit, making conditions almost perfect for the control Pirelli slick tyres. After running ‘used’ rubber for much of the morning, most teams lined up in qualifying on ‘roaded’ rubber to go after the record and a strong starting position, something which would prove vital on the tight twisty Reid Park layout.

The battle up front was intense, and predictably involved Muscat, D’Alberto and Sandown top qualifier Steven Richards in the Interlloy Lamborghini.

In the end Richards was just too good, taking almost two seconds off Klark Quinn’s 2011 benchmark time. Despite a relatively lacklustre run through practice, Klark Quinn set a stunning time late in the session to leap into second place in the Darrell Lea McLaren, with D’Alberto dropping back to third after leading the times early.

The Erebus Motorsport team surprisingly weren’t at the top of the timesheets at the end of qualifying prompting some question about ‘strategy’, but Richard Muscat admitted the reason the gorgeous black and green SLS wasn’t on pole was purely down to him.

“We have a brilliant race setup – no question, but despite that I wanted pole,” he admitted. “With four minutes to go we made some changes and the car was mega, but I didn’t manage to get a clean lap, and couldn’t do any better than fourth.”

What Muscat had failed to mention though was that until the final sector of the lap, he’d been the fastest car on track through the first two sectors, something which could raise his odds in the battle for outright positions..

Fifth fastest was Tony Quinn in the Aston, who admitted he wasn’t 100% happy with the car and that he could have been quicker, whilst sixth was young Antunes, in the process the Audi driver topping the Trophy Class grid. Second in Trophy Class was James Winslow in the similar Equity-One Audi R8, with Dan Gaunt in Jan Jinadasa’s Lamborghini third.

Matt Kingsley topped the Challenge Class times after a lengthy battle with Carrera Cup regular and GT part-timer Michael Almond in Ben Foessel’s Porsche, whilst AGT debutante Hayden Cooper topped the GT Sports category in the Ginetta G50 GT4, his impressive 1:19.0633 some two seconds faster than Tony Alford in the Donut King Lotus Exige.

The opening 40-minute race gets underway at 9:40am Saturday, with a compulsory pit stop scheduled mid-race, with two further 40-minute races scheduled for Sunday, July 6.