Holden veteran Jason Bright has held off defending V8 Supercars champion Jamie Whincup to claim pole position for the opening race of this weekend’s round in Auckland.

Bright laid down the quickest lap at Pukehoke on Friday to top the timesheets, just 0.075secs ahead of Whincup whose last-ditch effort put him on the front row in second.

Local Holden hero Shane van Gisbergen finished third quickest, with championship leader Craig Lowndes in fourth and Mercedes’ Will Davison fifth.

Kiwi young gun Scott McLaughlin, who became the youngest V8 Supercars winner at last year’s Auckland event, will start the 100km race from seventh on the grid – two spots in front of countryman Fabian Coulthard.

Whincup’s hot lap came barely half an hour after the five-time title winner crashed out during opening practice.

The incident happened at the same spot Rick Kelly ploughed his Nissan into a tyre wall just five minutes into qualifying, cutting short his session and sending him to the bottom of the timesheets.

Ford’s Mark Winterbottom looked set to join him in the pits after an uncharacteristic mistake at the final turn led to him smashing a sign post and brushing a concrete wall on the straight.

But after a mighty effort from his team, the Bathurst winner was able to get back on track to post the 10th fastest lap.

The round’s opening sprint race starts just after 1.30pm (11.30am AEST) on Friday.

Two more 100km races will be run on Saturday, before a mini-marathon 200km battle on Sunday.

It’s the first time in the Australian touring car championship’s 55-year history that a race has been held on Anzac Day.