Despite fluctuating weather conditions on the Gold Coast today, a record day two crowd of 64,111 filed through the gates to witness the debut of the green-and-gold Team Australia Champ Cars, a huge program of Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge action and the Friday Night Racing.

That takes the combined two day crowd to more than 120,000 – a marvelous achievement given the irregular weather conditions.

Champ Car World Series: US-based Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais (Newman/Haas Racing) secured a front row start for Sunday’s race by topping the time sheets in this afternoon’s first qualifying session with a best lap of 1:45.739. Team Australia’s Alex Tagliani made it a memorable day for the Aussie team debuting on its home track by clocking the second fastest time of the day of 1:46.010. Canada’s Paul Tracy (Forsythe Championship Racing) rounded out the top three, while local Gold Coast talent Marcus Marshall (Team Australia) finished 10th and second fastest rookie. In his first-ever Champ Car experience for Team Australia, Toowoomba’s Will Power finished the session as 17th fastest out of the 19 participating drivers.

Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge: Super Cheap Auto Racing’s Greg Murphy claimed pole position with a blistering Top 10 Shootout lap of 1:51:3434. Joining Murphy on the front of the grid will be Todd Kelly (Holden Racing Team) who posted a Shootout lap of 1:51:8668. Kelly’s HRT teammate Mark Skaife was third fastest, while Marcos Ambrose (Pirtek Racing) had the fastest Falcon and is starting at position four. Steven Richards (Team Perkins Racing) was less than a second behind Murphy to be fifth fastest in the Shootout.

Friday Night Racing: Twenty Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars lit up the track to start the Friday Night Racing component of today’s program. With their headlights on and illuminated by the highrises lining the 4.47km street circuit, the Porsches were contesting race two of the Wright Patton Shakespeare Carrera Cup. Young gun Fabian Coulthard was the victor in the seven-lap encounter to increase his championship lead. Then a spectacular entertainment session enthralled the crowd including an F1-11 dump’n burn before the Haymans Electrical V8 Utes concluded the program. Another young gun in Ryal Harris took the honours in front of his home crowd. With fine weather forecast for the weekend, organisers are confident of another record breaking four day crowd at the Lexmark Indy 300.