Garth Tander and Steve McLaughlan will start from pole position ahead of tomorrow’s opening 60-minute CAMS Australian GT Championship race at Phillip Island.

Despite mixed conditions, Tander’s best of 1:23.8933 was just three tenths of a second away from the qualifying lap record, and saw the Audi driver narrowly beat McLaren’s Shane Van Gisbergen for top spot.

The two-part qualifying session had started on a damp circuit, though drying conditions soon saw the field back in pit lane to switch to dry weather Pirelli tyres.

The McLaren’s of Matt Kingsley and Elliot Barbour traded best times in the opening session, Barbour edging out his Tekno Autosports stable-mate by four tenths of a second.

However improved conditions in the second session saw times tumble, with Van Gisbergen heading the field for much of the session in the Darrell Lea McLaren he’ll share with Klark Quinn

The leading three cars were split by less than a tenth of a second for much of the 20-minute session before Tander’s final flying lap.

The Jamec Pem driver bettered his previous best by two tenths of a second, though believes there was more to come from the car.

“I made a mistake on my fastest lap, so we could have gone a bit quicker,” Tander said.

“The team has done a fantastic job. It’s the fastest I’ve ever been around Phillip Island!”

Steve Richards and Max Twigg claimed a seasons-best fifth place in the SR Motorsport BMW with the all-new Marc GT BMW M6 GT3 also inside the top ten.

Such was the competition that the first six rows on the grid cars were covered by less than a second, with five different manufacturers represented in the top ten.

Tomorrow’s opening race is set to begin at 9:35 tomorrow morning, ahead of Race 2 at 11:50am.

Both events will be streamed live online via the Australian GT website.

Video highlights of the session are available on YouTube (also linked below).

Qualifying Results
P    Driver(s)    Team    Time
1    Steve McLaughlan/Garth Tander    Jamec Pem    1:26.8933
2    Klark Quinn/Shane Van Gisbergen    Darrell Lea    1:27.0354
3    Greg Taylor/Marco Bonanomi    GT Motorsport    1:27.1049
4    Nathan Antunes/Elliot Barbour    Beechwood/SLR/Buildmap    1:27.1931
5    Steve Richards/Max Twigg    SR Motorsport    1:27.3346
6    James Koundouris/Marcus Marshall    Supabarn Supermarkets    1:27.3718
7    Scott Taylor/Craig Baird    Scott Taylor Motorsport    1:27.4263
8    Miguel Molina/Tony Bates    Jamec Pem    1:27.5099
9    John Martin/Aaron Tebb    Walkinshaw GT3    1:27.5556
10    Morgan Haber/Bruno Spengler    Marc GT    1:27.7408
11    Tony Quinn/Daniel Gaunt    Darrell Lea    1:27.8740
12    Peter Hackett/Dom Storey    Eggleston Motorsport    1:27.8812
13    Andrew Taplin/Dean Canto    Taplin Real Estate    1:27.0713
14    Justin McMillan/Glen Wood    Interlloy M Motorsport    1:28.1726
15    Ricky Capo    Modena Engineering    1:28.4509
16    Tony D’Alberto/Graham Smythe    Maranello Motorsport    1:28.6850
17    Adrian Deitz/Cam McConville    Maranello Motorsport    1:28.7632
18    Grant Denyer/Matt Kingsley    McLaren Melbourne    1:28.8549
19    Peter Edwards    Maranello Motorsport    1:29.3623
20    Andrew McPherson/Brad Shiels    AMAC Motorsport    1:29.5247
21    Liam Talbot/Jake Fouracre    Skwirk Online Education    1:29.5571
22    Roger Lago    JBS Australia    1:29.5928
23    Yasser Shahin    The Bend Motorsport Park    1:29.6992
24    Tony Walls    Objective Racing    1:29.8093
25    Andrew Miedecke/George Miedecke    Miedecke Motor Group    1:29.8456
26    Simon Ellingham/Tim Miles    Fastway Couriers    1:30.1942
27    Nathan Morcom    Direct Plaster Outlet    1:30.5367
28    Alex Rullo/Peter Rullo    Performance West Motorsport    1:32.3321
29    Ash Samadi    Bondi Wholefoods    1:32.8499
30    Mark Griffith    Hogs Breath Café/Griffith Corporation    1:39.6512