It was a brilliant piece of driving from McLaughlin in far from ideal conditions, with the reigning champion improving significantly from his qualifying time yesterday to post a 2:03.378 – four tenths faster than second-placed Chaz Mostert
Starting behind the front two will be Cameron Waters and Jamie Whincup with Waters the other big winner from the session after starting the shootout in eighth.
The great race will begin at 11:30 am AEST with drivers to complete 161 laps.
Dunlop Super2 Series
Bryce Fullwood continued his domination over the Super2 Series as he led the field from the start, building a 13-second gap twice throughout the 41-lap race and crossing the line in first place.
However in an attempt to break the existing lap record on the last lap, to which he was successful, Fullwood was then penalised post-race due to a yellow flag infringement, demoting him to second place behind Thomas Randle.
Randle originally finished the race in second ahead of Kurt Kostecki after the duo were benefactors of some earlier issues to Will Brown and Tyler Everigham, which saw both drivers out of the top three - Brown eventually colliding with the wall and seeing his race end early.
Toyota 86 Series
It was a spectacular ending to the Toyota 86 Series’ first day of action, but not for the racing side of it, as Peter Vodanovich was sent tumbling through the air on the final lap of the second race.
While he thankfully walked away with no major injuries from the incident, Luke King ended up crossing the line first ahead of Aaron Borg who took out the first race of the day. Rounding out the top three on both occasions was Luke van Herwaarde.
The Toyota 86 Series resumes tomorrow for the final time this weekend with the first race of the day at 7:45 am AEST.
Paynter Dixon Touring Car Masters
Just one race today for the Touring Car Masters as New Zealander Angus Fogg got his first victory for the weekend, comfortably beating Ryal Harris and yesterday’s winner Steve Johnson.
Only three-tenths of a second separated second placed Harris and Johnson in third, with the latter losing his lead to Fogg in the round points ahead of tomorrow’s final race.
The category is back on track at 8:55 am tomorrow morning.
ECB Superutes
A brilliant performance in the first session saw Tom Alexander take out the race by 13 seconds over Craig Woods and 15 seconds over race one winner Nathan Pretty.
It was a different outcome in the category’s final race for the weekend as Pretty found himself back on the winners’ list, grabbing his first round win for the season in the process.
Third place to Tom Alexander saw him grab the outright lead in the series.
Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup
Jordan Love made it two from two with his second consecutive win for the weekend and 12th win for the season as he led the field from start to finish.
Coming in second place was Cooper Murray after passing yesterday’s runner-up Dale Wood on the first lap, setting up an exciting final race tomorrow.
Outright series leader Dale Wood found himself in damage control in the early stages of the race, dropping to as low as 14th on the first lap before slowly crawling to ninth at the end of the race.
Wood has one more chance to defend his series lead this weekend with the category having its final race for the weekend tomorrow at 10.05 am.