Defending Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen has largely struggled to come to grips with the new Gen 3 cars this year, but has broken new ground in qualify, as he chases back-to-back victories at the iconic Bathurst 1000.
In a last-ditch bid to make the Top 10 Shootout and contend for pole position, the flying Kiwi became the first Supercars driver to officially break the 300km/h barrier.
Van Gisbergen's effort came in the final seconds of qualifying, as he returned the seventh-fastest lap time to progress to Saturday evening's shootout.
Championship leader Brodie Kostecki was fastest with 2m 04.6644s, while his nearest rival on the standings was more than half a second slower. Data gathered down 1.9km Conrod Straight shows van Gisbergen recorded 300.5km/h, with a little help from a rival.
"Thanks to James Courtney, I just got a tow off him," said the two-time Bathurst winner.
"We didn't really have the pace, but he just pulled me along, so we snuck in. We've prioritised the race car, which made us not very good in qualifying."
On Saturday morning, fellow Kiwi Richie Stanaway showed the Triple Eight Race Engineering car was preparing well for Sunday's 'Great Race', clocking the fastest lap time (2m 06.486s) in the final co-driver practice session.
"We made a pretty big change to the car overnight," he said. "Just wanted to validate that this morning, really happy with it.
"We're not quite sure if we're going to lock it in for the race yet, but Shane will give it a crack later on today."
Aussie Garth Tander, who helped van Gisbergen to victory last year, was second-fastest co-driver and will support David Reynolds.
Join Newshub at 1pm Sunday for live updates of the Bathurst 1000
