He's in front of the V8 Supercars championship and on the front row of the grid at Sandown.
It doesn't get much better for Jamie Whincup.
Paired with Paul Dumbrell for the first endurance race of the season, the Red Bull Racing number one car led all day during Saturday's three-stage qualifying, and deservedly will start from pole for Sunday's 500 kilometre race.
Fresh from breaking Peter Brock's long-standing record for most touring car pole positions, Whincup added one more for the first endurance race of the season.
"It's actually quite refreshing to have a race without points, you go out there and go hard and rag it and see what happens," Whincup said.
As it turns out, what happens is Whincup takes pole - much like he's done in the rest of his career.
Whincup also lowered his own practice lap record earlier in qualifying to one minute 08.5730 seconds, before handing the car over to Dumbrell.
The biggest hiccup of the day came during his co-driver's stewardship, when Dumbrell appeared to beat the green light and jump the start.
A subsequent inquiry cleared the car, which Lowndes conceded looked "dodgy" but was above board.
"We actually don't know what happened, believe it or not," Whincup said, "but I think they made the right call."
The lack of championship points didn't reduce the intensity of racing, with both series drivers and co-drivers involved in ferocious fighting for position.
The biggest challenge to car number one's dominance came from the Holden pairing of Shane Van Gisbergen and Jonathon Webb.
Webb jumped five places with an electric drive during the co-drivers race and Van Gisbergen backed that up by taking it strongly to the series leader during the final race.
Whincup's nearest challenger for the V8 Supercars title, Ford's Mark Winterbottom, completed his best qualifying effort in several races to finish third, with New Zealander Scott McLaughlin fourth.
The Volvo driver has formed an international pairing with Frenchman Alexandre Premat and showed strong pace across practice and qualifying.
Holden Racing Team drivers Garth Tander and James Courtney locked out the third row, ensuring they too stay in calculations.
While the field behind him is fast and determined, Whincup's main worry could be history.
No pole sitter has won at Sandown since Craig Lowndes in 1996, a feat achieved just six times across half a century.
SANDOWN 500 GRID POSITIONS
1. (car number 1) Jamie Whincup (Holden)
2. (97) Shane van Gisbergen (Holden)
3. (5) Mark Winterbottom (Ford)
4. (33) Scott McLaughlin (Volvo)
5. (2) Garth Tander (Holden)
6. (22) James Courtney (Holden)
7. (888) Craig Lowndes (Holden)
8. (55) David Reynolds (Ford)
9. (47) Tim Slade (Holden)
10. (14) Fabian Coulthard (Holden)
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