Drapac upstaged the powerful Orica-GreenEDGE cycling team to take first honours in the Herald Sun Tour.
Teammates Will Clarke and Brenton Jones finished first and third on Wednesday night in the prologue time trial.
But Orica-GreenEDGE had four riders in the top 10 to emphasise they will be the team to beat over the next four days.
GreenEDGE's young gun Caleb Ewan finished second and their defending race champion Simon Clarke was seventh, while New Zealander Sam Bewley was fourth and Michael Hepburn took sixth.
Clarke, who won a Tour Down Under stage three years ago, clocked two minutes 35.53 seconds over the 2.1km course in Melbourne.
The Tasmanian was the fifth-last rider to start and he took the lead from his compatriot Ewan, who had clocked 2:36.42.
Jones made it an Australian trifecta with 2:36.85.
Will Clarke was rapt to win after finishing third in the same prologue a year ago.
"I've been thinking about it for 12 months, so I've had a bit of time to go over it and try and figure out where to make up a bit of ground," he said of the technical inner-city course.
Drapac's long-term aim is to join Orica-GreenEDGE as Australian teams at the top level of international cycling.
Will Clarke said he will aim to take his opportunities this week, rather than contend for the overall title.
"I'm probably not a GC (general classification) rider for Drapac, but we have some strong climbers and 'BJ' (Jones) for the sprints," he said.
Simon Clarke thought he would go a couple of places better on Wednesday, saying he over-cooked a chicane near the start.
"But anyway, that's only one and a bit seconds off the lead and that's fine in terms of GC - get through safely and not throw it away," he said.
"In terms of GC threats, I think I managed to finish faster than most of them."
He added that having four of their six riders in the top 10 was a good sign.
Orica-GreenEDGE are the only WorldTour team in the race and everyone else will be out to negate their obvious strength.
"They (other teams) have been preparing for this knowing we would be coming here to defend it and we wouldn't be able to come here with any kind of blase approach," Clarke said.
"So the results today show how well prepared everyone in the team is."
Second place was also pleasing for Ewan after he failed to finish last Sunday's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Rd Race, where Simon Clarke was second.
"I don't usually go well in crosswinds and it showed that day," he said.
"I learned from it and that's the main thing this year - learning.
"It's good to get a good result today and hopefully some more during the week."
The race continues on Thursday with stage one, a 152km race from Mount Macedon to Bendigo.
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