It was held on the weekend of 13 to 16 March at Albert Park Street Circuit, in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, the capital of Victoria.

The meeting was a non-championship affair, conducted under a unique Holden vs Ford format.

Mark Skaife was fastest as the Holden Racing Team continued its resurgence.

The end of qualifying was nervous with the first top ten shootout of the season to be held the following day and while Russell Ingall scraped into the top ten, the unique Ford vs Holden rules for this event which demanded five of each manufacturer in the top ten saw Ingall, as the sixth Holden, relegated in favour of the fifth Ford, Steven Johnson.

Michael Patrizi qualified 28th on the debut of both himself and his Ford Rising Stars Racing in the main game series.