Phillip Island 500 winners Garth Tander and Mark Skaife have firmed to equal favouritism for today’s Bathurst 1000 after taking pole position for the Australian classic at Mount Panorama.

Tander set the fastest time in Saturday’s Top Ten shootout and despite a last place charge by  FPV driver Mark Winterbottom it will be Holden on pole.

Tander’s time  of 2 mins:07.2963 seconds was still off the record of New Zealand driver Greg Murphy of 2 mins: 06.8594 seconds during the 2003 top-10 shootout.

Winterbottom and team-mate Steve Richards will start alongside the Holden in the FPV Falcon, but a last minute electrical drama during Sunday’s warm up saw the FPV team hard at work changing electrical components in an attempt to track down the problem.

Despite Holden’s constant complaints regarding parity it was an even spilt for the top ten with five Holden’s and five Fords.

Third place will see the Stone Brothers Racing Falcon of James Courtney and David Besnard starting on the inside of the second of the Holdens of Paul Dumbrell and Rick Kelly.

Kelly replaced David Reynolds after former World Touring Car Champion Paul Radisich crashed the car he was to share with Kelly during Saturday practice. The Kiwi had to be cut from the car and was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken ankle and severe bruising.

Further down the grid were the Internationals with the British Touring car Champion Fabrizio Giovanardi and Matt Hynes starting back in 24 two places ahead of NASCAR driver Boris Said and Englishman Matt Neal who have struggled to come to grips with the cars and circuit.