Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander took pole position in qualifying for the first race of the Ipswich 300 at Queensland Raceway.

Tander was only eighth fastest going into the shootout, but put together a clean lap to end the shootout fastest, holding off Jim Beam Racing's James Courtney who was over four tenths faster than anyone else in the qualifying session, a mistake at turn three on his shootout lap costing him dearly.

Behind them on the second row were a pair of Fords, with young Shane van Gisbergen ahead of Mark Winterbottom, with Steven Johnson just a tick slower than 'Frosty'.

Having headed into the shootout a place ahead of his team-mate, Will Davison must have been disappointed to end up still in seventh, although he'd done better than Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes, who slipped from fourth to eighth.

A surprise in tenth was the privateer effort of Dean Fiore in his Triple F Falcon, and just as big a surprise was that he was two places ahead of series leader Jamie Whincup, who struggled with setup and failed to put a good enough lap together to make the shootout.

Three drivers who may have expected to be much further up the grid were Paul Dumbrell, Jason Richards and Russell Ingall in 22nd, 23rd and 24th places, although some consolation could be taken from the fact the whole field except for Tony Ricciardello was within nine tenths of pole position.

Pos  Driver                Car                   Time
 1.  Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VE   1m09.8526s 
 2.  James Courtney        Ford Falcon FG        1m09.9499s  +0.0973s
 3.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford Falcon FG        1m09.9803s  +0.1277s
 4.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford Falcon FG        1m10.0275s  +0.1749s
 5.  Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon FG        1m10.0409s  +0.1883s
 6.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden Commodore VE   1m10.2304s  +0.3778s
 7.  Will Davison          Holden Commodore VE   1m10.2772s  +0.4246s
 8.  Craig Lowndes         Holden Commodore VE   1m10.3083s  +0.4557s
 9.  Jason Bright          Holden Commodore VE   1m10.6301s  +0.7775s
10.  Dean Fiore            Ford Falcon FG        1m10.8342s  +0.9816s
11.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   1m10.2813s  +0.4287s
12.  Jamie Whincup         Holden Commodore VE   1m10.2921s  +0.4395s
13.  Jonathon Webb         Ford Falcon FG        1m10.3097s  +0.4571s
14.  Alex Davison          Ford Falcon FG        1m10.3355s  +0.4829s
15.  Steven Richards       Ford Falcon FG        1m10.3460s  +0.4934s
16.  Greg Murphy           Holden Commodore VE   1m10.3744s  +0.5218s
17.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   1m10.3944s  +0.5418s
18.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden Commodore VE   1m10.3964s  +0.5438s
19.  Michael Caruso        Holden Commodore VE   1m10.3990s  +0.5464s
20.  Fabian Coulthard      Holden Commodore VE   1m10.4219s  +0.5693s
21.  Daniel Gaunt          Holden Commodore VE   1m10.4275s  +0.5749s
22.  Paul Dumbrell         Ford Falcon FG        1m10.4419s  +0.5893s
23.  Jason Richards        Holden Commodore VE   1m10.4580s  +0.6054s
24.  Russell Ingall        Holden Commodore VE   1m10.4671s  +0.6145s
25.  Tim Slade             Ford Falcon FG        1m10.5276s  +0.6750s
26.  Karl Reindler         Holden Commodore VE   1m10.5645s  +0.7119s
27.  Andrew Thompson       Holden Commodore VE   1m10.5797s  +0.7271s
28.  Jason Bargwanna       Holden Commodore VE   1m10.7323s  +0.8797s
29.  Tony Ricciardello     Holden Commodore VE   1m11.3629s  +1.5103s