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In a cruel stroke of luck, it was a case of lightning striking twice for two TCR Australia Series title favourites.
In bizarre scenes, Audi RS 3 LMS drivers Will Brown and Zac Soutar suffered the exact same failure in qualifying for race one of the year at the SpeedSeries opener.
Soutar suffered his issue in the first leg of qualifying while Brown befell the same fate late in the second portion.
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Moments earlier Brown had put his car on pole position for the season-opener.
Although not ruling themselves out of the weekend entirely, neither driver will contest the first race.
It’s understood there are no spares of that specific part in the country.
“It’s pretty disappointing,” said Brown.
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“We’re not smiling down there. The input shaft has broken off and we just don’t have any parts.
“They’ve been on order for six months trying to get the new parts for the car.
“It’s probably, at this stage, going to put us out for the weekend and probably won’t be able to compete.
“We’re trying to see if we can weld some stuff up, and do all that, dodgy it up a bit. If not I’ll probably be having a beer up on the hill with everyone.”
Nevertheless, Brown was upbeat, despite looking like he’ll miss the first three races of the season.
“I won it (the title) by a round in 2019, so anything’s possible really,” said Brown.
“I’ll be going back out there and trying everything I can for the rest of the season.”
With Brown out, Josh Buchan was to have inherited pole position. However, he was relegated to the rear of the grid after receiving a penalty for excessive turbo boost.
Bailey Sweeny moved into pole position and streaked away with the win.
Last year’s champion Tony D’Alberto started second and finished second while Kody Garland snagged his first TCR Australia Series podium finish.
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