McDonald impresses on Bathurst debut.

Kanga Loaders Racing's Gary McDonald has delivered on his prediction after a brilliant effort in Saturday's Konica Minolta V8 Supercar qualifying at Mt Panorama at Bathurst.

In what is his debut in a V8 Supercar at Bathurst, McDonald has finished ahead of a number of more well fancied and experienced drivers to end the session in sixth place.

"We came to Bathurst with a goal of being inside the top six and we've managed to do that today. It was a big ask considering the quality of the teams competing, so it's really pleasing," said McDonald.

Commenting on his inaugural outing in a V8 Supercar at Mt Panorama, McDonald added - "This place is daunting enough in a Brute Ute, let alone a 600 horsepower Falcon. It took a little bit of time to come to grips with the Kanga Loaders Ford but I think our results shows that we got on top of things."

McDonald's steep V8 learning curve was made more difficult when he was forced to sit out the last third of qualifying with an uncharacteristic fourth gear problem - "It's not often that you have problems with a gearbox these days but somehow we lost fourth gear about two thirds the way through the session," said the former Brute Ute champ. "There was no way that we were getting back out, so we called it a day. It would have been nice have more time on the track but we're still rapt."

It was also the first outing for the new Kanga Loaders Falcon, which is now prepared from the Steven Ellery Racing (SER) stable and according to McDonald the new partnership is already paying off.

"The guys at SER are just awesome! The Kanga Loaders Falcon was a great car to drive and easily the best V8 Supercar I've ever driven."

"I also had fantastic support and advice from Steve Ellery. Being my first time here [at Mt Panorama], I was looking for all the help I could get and Steve was brilliant. I can see why he has been so successful at Bathurst," McDonald concluded.