HE said he was coming to Mount Panorama to win and Will Davison took a big step towards making that happen as he stormed to Bathurst 6 Hour pole position on Saturday.
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The Supercars star clocked a qualifying lap that was almost half a second quicker than his nearest rival, his best effort a 2:24.461 on his fifth lap of the 20-minute session.
Davison's flyer came behind the wheel of the BMW M3 he'll share with Beric Lynton and Orange's Tim Leahey in the enduro.
It's the same BMW that Leahey put on pole in 2018 (2:22.0904) and 2019 (2:24.80).
It's the same BMW that won the 2019 edition of the race in dominant fashion.
But Davison, a two-time Bathurst 1000 champion, was not part of that victory. He first joined the team last year.
He qualified in fifth, but mechanical issues on race day saw the trio finish in 27th. It's a result Davison is hungry to improve on.
"I'm only there because I think we've got a good shot to compete for the win," he said.
"I really enjoyed being a part of the six hour with Beric, Tim and the team last year, unfortunately we had a mechanical issue very early on which put us out of contention.
"[So] I have been very keen to come back and have another shot."
Joining Davison on the front row of the grid for the 6 Hour is another BMW M3, with Drew Russell posting a 2:24.9576 in the #55 car he'll share with his dad Wayne and brother Aaren.
It will be an all-BMW second row on the grid as well.
Davison's Supercars team-mate Anton De Pasquale (2:25.2733) was third in the qualifying session, with Thomas Randle (2:25.8577) fourth.
While seeing Davison claim pole position was something many had predicted, there were still surprises during qualifying.
The biggest one was sprung by 18-year-old Ryan Casha, who put his A2 class #221 Ford Mustang into position seven.
He was the fastest driver outside those in the leading X class as he clocked a 2:27.0747 - the quickest ever recorded by a Mustang in 6 Hour trim.
It made it a day to remember for Casha given he'd also won race one of the Circuit Excel Bathurst Challenge earlier in the afternoon.
"That's nice, it's pretty cool since we're running the Excel as well, that's two lap records in a day," the Ipswich young gun said.
"I've had the ability to run here four or five times now, so I'm very lucky and very appreciative to get this opportunity. It's awesome to be right up the front, it's a good start for tomorrow."
As he focussed on getting the most out of the Mustang in the 20 minute session, Casha said he didn't realise he was on for such a good lap time.
It gives him confidence ahead of Sunday's race.
"We have a little predictive on our dash, but when you're too focussed on other stuff you don't really look at it," he said.
"I'm just happy to put in a solid time and keep the car straight, we've got six hours of racing to go so we've got to get settled for that now."
Casha will share his seat with another emerging talent in 16-year-old Rylan Gray.
Like Casha, he's making his 6 Hour debut and was delighted as he watched the timing charts in the garage during qualifying.
"It's a pretty surreal experience really, for it all to come true, to be here and to be racing, it's pretty cool and to be up the front is always special," Gray said.
Car owner and the third driver, Chris Delfsma, praised both teen talents for their efforts over the opening two days of the event and the team as a whole as they put plenty of work into getting the Mustang ready for qualifying.
"It's so good to see these young guys going so good. We knew they had it in them, it was just could they get the track they needed and Ryan did," Delfsma said.
"We knew we could do it, we have to thank the team as we'd had a tough run to this point, the car spent most of the time on jacks yesterday. Everyone pulled together."
As for the two Bathurst teams which will tackle the enduro, they showed they will be contenders for class podiums.
Dean Campbell watched on from the garage as Cameron Crick qualified their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.
Crick peeled off a 2:29.4104 on his second lap to rank second of the A1 class entries and 15th outright.
The Subaru WRX Sti entry of Harrison and Grant Inwood plus Tim Colombrita was the third fastest of the B1 class cars.
Harrison Inwood was given the job in qualifying and clocked a best lap of 2:36.4689. It means they will go from 35th on the grid on Sunday.
This year's Bathurst 6 Hour will commence at 11.45am on Sunday morning.
BATHURST 6 HOUR TOP 10 QUALIFIERS: Will Davison 2:24.4612, Drew Russell 2:24.9576, Anton De Pasquale 2:25.2733, Thomas Randle 2:25.8577, Jayden Ojeda 2:25.8721, Tyler Everingham 2:26.0529, Ryan Casha 2:27.0747, Ryder Quinn 2:27.4567, Dylan O'Keeffe 2:27.4647, Aaron Seton 2:27.7385.
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